With a day to go until they predict the count will be done, the Elections Division has checked some 131,000 signatures and approved more than 114,000 of those.

What’s it mean: R71 supporters need 120,577 valid, registered voter signatures in order to make the November ballot. If that happens, voters will decide whether same-sex domestic partners should have all the state-granted rights and responsibilities of marriage.

We should find out tomorrow — and maybe sooner, if they make a lot of progress today. We’ll keep you posted.

Tags: R71

Tags: Public Disclosure Commission, R71

Today’s Q&A is with head of the Washington Department of Transportation, Paula Hammond. She talked with us about whether the tunnel replacement for the Alaskan Way Viaduct is a done deal, federal stimulus, early tolling and the biggest road construction summer in history.

Q. What are the biggest challenges for your department?
A. Well, challenges first of all are not always a bad thing in my mind because a very good challenge we have is an opportunity to deliver the biggest highway construction program that our state has ever seen. So its us delivering projects that provide benefits not only to communities but the statewide transportation system. But it’s a challenge in that its something that’s pretty high volume, for us its the delivery of cost effective projects. And for travelers I’m hearing more and more, Can there possibly be more cones and barrels out on the road?
It’s not only stimulus money, which we’re going great guns on, this highest construction season ever because of 2003 and 2005 gas packages. We’re getting a lot of people who are just wishing that the barrels will go away.
One way of thinking about it is our normal biennial construction capital budget pre-2003 hovered somewhere in the $2 billion range. This biennium, we’re at $4.5 billion for capital investments. So more than double. The good news is that a lot of those projects — the 391 that the Legislature hand selected with the revenue packages — are on the way to being delivered. Of the 391, we have completed 195. Another 82 are under construction, and another 22 will go to construction in the next six months. So of 391 projects, 297 are either in construction, going to construction or done. We’ve got some of the biggest still coming – 520 corridor, replacement of floating bridge and replacing the Viaduct with the tunnel. (more…)

Tags: Paula Hammond, Q&A, transportation

Yesterday, the Public Disclosure Commission held their regular meeting. On the agenda: Whether names of people who donated to Referendum 71 should be a public record. Donors to political campaigns are a public record, but R71 backers wanted to be exempt. The PDC disagreed, so the names will continue to be a public record.

Now, for the count: More than 125,000 signatures have been counted, and Nick Handy of the Elections Division predicts they’ll be done counting by Sept. 1. R71 supporters have nearly 111,000 valid signatures, of the 120,577 needed.

Remember when Secretary of State Sam Reed predicted a lawsuit? Well, he was right.

Tags: R71

Here’s yesterday’s first meeting of the Quality Education Council — formed with the education reform bill passed in the previous legislative session. I missed it because I was sick, but now we can watch the whole thing here:

Tags: Quality Education Council

Tomorrow’s a big day: The Quality Education Council will have it’s first meeting — aired live on TVW — and the Public Disclosure Commission will meet to discuss (among other things) whether names of donors of Referendum 71 should be subject to public disclosure.

And: We’ll have the latest Q&A. Department of Transportation head Paula Hammond is the subject of tomorrow’s installment. She’ll talk about the Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement plan (a new survey shows most people are in favor of the tunnel), early tolling, the biggest road construction year in state history and much, much more.

Prep for the QEC meeting here and the PDC meeting here.

Tags: education, QEC, R71

Today’s update on Referendum 71 counting (and re-counting): 110,288 signatures have been checked.

Accepted: 97,261
Rejected: 13,027
Error rate: 11.81 percent
Signatures needed to make the ballot: 120,577
Or: 23,316 more than they have now
Signatures left to be counted: 27,401
(R71 supporters turned in 137,689 signatures total)

Go here for more from the Secretary of State’s Office.

Tags: R71

In honor of Sen. Edward Kennedy, who died last night, President Barack Obama has ordered all flags to fly at half staff until Monday morning.

“Senator Edward M. Kennedy was not only one of the greatest senators of our time, but one of the most accomplished Americans ever to serve our democracy. Over the past half-century, nearly every major piece of legislation that has advanced the civil rights, health, and economic well-being of the American people bore his name and resulted from his efforts. With his passing, an important chapter in our American story has come to an end.”

Read the whole proclamation here.

And Gov. Chris Gregoire has directed flags in Washington be at half-staff Thursday, Aug. 27 to remember U.S. Army First Sergeant Jose S. Crisostomo. The 59-year old from Spanaway died in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Flags should be lowered for that until end-of-day Thursday or Friday morning — unless you’re keeping the flag lowered for Kennedy.

Tags: flag

The Elections Division continues counting on Referendum 71: Now, they’ve counted 103,898 signatures. Of those, 91,716 have been accepted. Supporters need 120,577 signatures in order for the referendum to go to a vote in November.

There’s some heated discussion on the counting process over at the Secretary of State’s blog.

Also: They’ve got an interesting post up about the special care used to check ethnic names.

Tags: R71

The state has decided to ban Festivus, Christmas and other displays from the capitol building this year, instead allowing just the tree, the Associated Press reports.

“The furor focused on an atheist placard, which said that religion was ‘myth and superstition.’ It was stolen and recovered, and hundreds came to a protest rally.”

Tags: holiday displays