Campaign signature gatherers getting worse? How is that possible?

Don’t you just hate when signature gatherers bug you while you’re trying to go grocery shopping? Whether it’s for a candidate or, more often than not, an initiative, the moment they walk up to me with those huge clip boards, I get this huge sense of dread because I will never, ever sign one of those petitions.

I don’t trust strangers with my personal information and I will never sign something I haven’t read (and no, I don’t have time to read and digest an initiative in the 13 seconds that you have my attention). What’s worse, the signature gatherers position the petition in a way that’s meant to shame you into signing it.

“Would you like to fight oppression? Will you sign this?” they ask. Who doesn’t want to stop oppression? How do you answer that? “No, I love oppression – the more systematic and institutionalized the better!” Of course not. So you may politely decline and then they push even more.

It’s ridiculous, it’s annoying and a new report out suggests the signature gatherers are getting more bothersome. (How that’s possible, I have no idea).

Apparently you’ve got grocery stores getting upset because their customers are complaining about the signature gatherers being overly aggressive. Safeway is reportedly taking issue with the Tacoma activists trying to get the $15 minimum wage initiative on the ballot. A Trader Joe’s in Kirkland is saying signature gatherers there are stepping up their annoyance factor.

“I would say they were quite aggressive. They seemed to be getting in the way of folks and asking them to sign,” said Bob Osrowske to KOMO-TV. “They were getting in people’s faces.”

He was talking of his interaction with I-1366, the Tim Eyman initiative. He claims the cops were called to handle the situation.

Now, no one from any campaign seems to acknowledge what you and I experience, regardless of the ideological bend to the initiative. 15 Now Tacoma say they’re not rude. Eyman, in testimony to the state in February said, “I ain’t buying this crap that there’s harassment going on. Every single campaign that opposes another initiative teaches their people to go into the store and say you were harassed.”

OK, well count me as one of the people annoyed by the signature gatherers, regardless of whether or not campaigns admit to being annoying. And if you’re wondering what can be done, well, it’s limited, depending on where you are.

Outside of private property, Washington state law gives petitioners the right to approach people outside of these spaces. It has to do with free speech. Now, they can’t be too pushy; they can’t insult and harass people who say no, but the truth is, most of you – myself included – will never complain to anyone about it, so it’s hard to track. We’ll just put up with it, maybe make some snarky, passive aggressive comment, and move on. That’s what I usually do (sorry).

But what happens more times than we’d like to admit is this: many of you will sign pretty much anything to get these people to go away and not judge you for not wanting to “stop oppression” via their poorly written initiative.

This is how bad initiatives get put onto ballots and sometimes become law. Keep that in mind the next time you placate an annoying signature gatherer.