Oregon Public Broadcasting

It looks like a banner year for citizen initiatives in Washington. Six are expected to qualify for the fall ballot. The deadline is Friday to turn in petitions in both Washington and Oregon. Austin Jenkins has more.

In Washington, petitions have already been turned in for two ballot measures.

One would privatize liquor sales. The other would allow private insurance companies to compete with the state-run workers' compensation system.

Over the next couple of days, four more campaigns plan to submit their petitions. 

One of the Northwest's top petition firms is run by Eddie Agazarm. He says Washington's short petition cycle all but forces campaigns to hire hundreds of itinerant signature gatherers.

Eddie "Spaghetti" Agazarm: "You've only a couple of months in Washington to get what is an insurmountable task, 320,000 signatures. How are you going to do that unless you pay money?"

The going rate in Washington ranges from two to six dollars per signature.

In Oregon, it's illegal to pay by the signature and there's more time to collect them. Even so, the six Oregon initiatives that may qualify this year all used paid help.