You can check the stauts of your ballot at votewa.gov.
Your ballot is 'accepted' if all has gone right.
If your ballot has been challenged, make sure to get it corrected by Monday, November 28th.
Bob Ferguson, Washington State's Attorney General, took an oath to uphold Washington state’s constitution and laws, not advance a radical political agenda. But you’d never know it judging by his refusal to accept a court ruling declaring unconstitutional the legislature’s attempt to illegally tax income from capital gains.
On Nov. 3, with the Washington State Supreme Court already scheduled to hear oral arguments in the case on Jan. 26, Ferguson filed a motion to stay a ruling issued last April by Douglas County Superior Court Judge Brian Huber invalidating the new tax.
Calling Huber’s decision "incorrect" and "at the very least debatable," Ferguson argued |"(I)t would be profoundly irresponsible for the Department [of Revenue] to fail to prepare to collect the tax in April 2023 as directed by statute."
Washington state law is unequivocal. Statutes declared unconstitutional are deemed void from the outset. They have no legal effect whatsoever and the law treats them as if they never existed.
But the elected attorney general wants the state to collect the tax from people now and decide whether it’s legal later.
On Wednesday, the Freedom Foundation’s legal team filed a brief in opposition to Ferguson’s high-handed actions.
During the 2021 session, the Legislature passed — and Gov. Jay Inslee quickly signed into law — a measure intended to punish the state’s high earners by imposing a 7 percent tax on income from certain capital gains above $250,000 a year, such as profits from stocks or business sales.
The Washington State Constitution, however, clearly states — and nearly 100 years of legal precedent supports — that such taxes must be applied uniformly and cannot exceed 1 percent without voter approval.
Backers of the tax describe it as an excise tax, but previous court decisions have consistently regarded income as property — which must be taxed at the same rate for everyone.
The Freedom Foundation, working with the Seattle law firm of Lane Powell, PC, immediately filed suit to kill the new tax, and Huber last spring sided with the organization. He wrote:
"As a tax on the receipt of income, ESSB 5096 is also properly characterized as a tax on property pursuant to that same case law. This court concludes that ESSB 5096 violates the uniformity and limitation requirements of article VII, sections 1 and 2 of the Washington State Constitution. It violates the uniformity requirement by imposing a 7 percent tax on an individual’s long-term capital gains exceeding $250,000 but imposing zero tax on capital gains below that $250,000 threshold. It violates the limitation requirement because the 7 percent tax exceeds the 1 percent maximum annual property tax rate of 1 percent."
As usual, Ferguson is playing with house money. It costs him nothing but your tax dollars to fight the Washington constitution and the consistently expressed will of the people he’s supposed to represent. Meanwhile, anyone who opposes his agenda must rely on their own resources.
Nothing new in Washington State, but in Oregon....
In the blue state of Oregon, voters were presented with Measure 114, the 12-page Changes to Firearm Ownership and Purchase Requirements Initiative, described
by the NRA as "the nation’s most extreme gun control Initiative."
Among other things, it requires a law enforcement-issued “permit to purchase” to buy or transfer a firearm, requires law enforcement to maintain a registry of gun owners’ personal information (gathered from permit applications), and subjects legitimate gun owners to extra fees to exercise their rights. It also unconstitutionally bans the use, possession, manufacturing, and transfer of magazines with a capacity of more than ten rounds.
This extreme law was supported by wealthy gun control groups Giffords, Bloomberg’s Everytown, and the Oregon Alliance for Gun Safety. Law enforcement associations, state gun groups. The National Rifle Association opposed the measure.
There was a huge funding disparity in the campaign contributions reported in relation to the measure, with $2,930,049.57 in support, and $173,205.26 against.
Large donations from single individuals made up most of the pro-Measure 114 funding, with Connie Ballmer, the wife of Steve Ballmer, billionaire and former Microsoft CEO, being the top donor with a contribution of $750,000, followed by Nicolas Hanauer ($250,000), and Bloomberg’s Everytown PAC donating an additional $155,000.
Even with the campaign spending so massively weighted in favor of the proponents, on election day the measure barely squeaked by, with current results showing just over 50% of voters favored the law.
When you vote, remember -- Democracy without personal liberty is pointless.
The Democrats have been drunk with power, binging on a wild party of spending on themselves, and increasing the burden of taxes on us. They knowingly indulged themselves with socialist experiments and broken concepts like 'social justice' and 'racial equity (not racial equality)'. They forgot what is on the line and the human need of right now.
-- Violent crime increase in Washington communities [PostMillenial].
-- Increasing homelessness [Washington State Wire].
–- Skyrocketing prices of everyday necessities like gasoline & food.
–- The American Dream for our children.
Stop the madness now. Get your ballot marked and in the mail. Vote to reduce taxation. Vote to remove the irresponsible Democrats from government.
Governor Inslee issued these rescissions just in time for the elections. The terminations are effective October 31, 2022 at 11:59 PM.
These orders include the following gubernatorial Proclamations:
20-05.1: Coronavirus Rescission
20-09.5: COVID-19 K-12 Schools Rescission
20-12.6: HigherEd and Vaccine Requirement Rescission
20-25.20: COVID-19 Washington Ready Rescission
20-43.11: COVID-19 OFM Leave Pay Rescission
20-64.6: COVID-19 PRA Contact Tracing Rescission
20-78.1: COVID-19 Stability in Local Health Jurisdictions escission
20-83.3: COVID-19 Restrictions on Travelers Rescission
21-08.2: COVID-19 Safe Workers Rescission
21-14.6: COVID Vaccination Requirement Rescission
21-05.2: Children’s Mental Health Crisis Rescission
