Andre Scott was gathering signatures outside the Covington WalMart on Sept. 24 when, he says, an employee on break came up to him.
“He just seemed like a normal person,” Scott said. “He asked if he could sign the initiatives.”
Scott was on the clock. A paid signature-gatherer from Texas, he’s part of a campaign to get two initiatives sent to state lawmakers — one giving parents rights to access materials like mental health counseling records about their children, and the other requiring that schools verify girls in sports aren’t transgender. Scott has two daughters.
“Me being in Texas, it doesn't affect me or my family, but it does affect the people in the state of Washington, and there aren't enough circulators out there,” Scott said. “I've got a little bit more passion behind the issue than the money.”
The employee asked if he could sign the initiatives, so Scott handed him the deck. Then, he says, the man reached down, grabbed another deck, and took off running with both. Scott gave chase.
“When I got around the corner, I caught him. He was bent over a trash can… trying to rip everything up,” Scott said.
Incidents involving signature-gatherers have become increasingly frequent as the group Let’s Go Washington, backed by hedge fund manager Brian Heywood, gears up its second effort to get conservative policies passed in majority-Democratic Washington state.
In 2024, Let’s Go Washington and its phalanx of signature-gatherers got bills on police chases and income taxes signed into law by Democrats, and persuaded voters to pass a statewide initiative defending natural gas. Three other initiatives related to taxes and greenhouse gas emissions were rejected by the electorate.
This year, the signature-gatherers have been targeted far more often, Heywood posted online.
There have been 31 interferences since they started gathering on Sept. 21, a campaign staffer told partner station KUOW via email, resulting in 19 police reports including “multiple assaults.”
Heywood has posted on X that in Federal Way, someone drove by in a car and threw “red liquid” on signature pages, and in Yakima, a man told a signature-gatherer he was going home to grab a gun.
The man who allegedly took around 160 signatures from Scott on Sept. 24 was charged with theft and malicious mischief, Covington’s police chief told KUOW.
Democratic state leaders such as Attorney General Nick Brown have condemned these incidents and encouraged anyone who witnesses them to report them to local law enforcement. Secretary of State Steve Hobbs called them “voter suppression” in a video posted on social media on Friday.
“Under Washington law, it is a gross misdemeanor to interfere with the right of any voter to sign or not to sign an initiative or referendum petition,” Hobbs said.
Heywood held a press conference in Tacoma on Tuesday with Pierce County Sheriff Keith Swank.
Heywood has accused the opposition campaign—Washington Families for Freedom, whose funders include the state teachers’ union and trans rights advocacy group the Gender Justice League — of encouraging these attacks via a tool on their website where visitors can “Report Signature Gathering.”
Danni Askini, co-chair of the campaign, condemned violence against signature-gatherers in a Sept. 29 press release about President Trump and his “agenda of erasing trans people from public life."
“We can all agree that it’s wrong to single out and attack anyone, including transgender people, for simply living our lives. We need more love and kindness and less hate,” Askini wrote. “We urge Washingtonians who support our efforts to peacefully spread the word about the harms of these initiatives. Violence against any signature gatherers, who are also exercising their First Amendment rights, is not acceptable under any circumstances.”
Let's Go Washington needs to collect nearly 309,000 signatures by Jan. 2, 2026, to get lawmakers to consider passing its proposals into law or putting them before voters.
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