State ex rel. Washington State Sportsmen's Council, Inc. v. Coe

Relators invoke the original jurisdiction of this court in mandamus to compel the secretary of state to accept the filing of an initiative petition to the legislature, which filing was refused by the secretary of state because it did not contain the number of signatures required by the thirtieth amendment to the Washington constitution.

Until December 6, 1956, the seventh amendment to the state constitution, the facilitating statute and amendments, Laws of 1913, chapter 138, p. 418 (Rem. Rev. Stat., §§ 5397 to 5428 [cf. RCW 29.79]), required only fifty thousand signatures on such petitions. In…