Brian Heywood, a wealthy hedge fund founder, and his conservative political action group, Let’s Go Washington, rallied outside the secretary of state’s office, unloading cardboard boxes full of signatures supporting the repeal. Workers in the secretary of state’s office will now verify the half-million signatures before the measure qualifies for a spot on November ballots.

Officials say it will take two weeks to verify the signatures.

“It’s an income tax, but it’s not really an income tax, it’s accumulation of all the regulation and taxation that’s made this state less and less affordable and less easy to live in,” Heywood said. "This is the start where we begin to fight back with this taking down the income tax.”

Let’s Go Washington has been lobbying support for its repeal effort since May and has collected far more than the 300,000 signatures required to put an initiative to voters. While the group has successfully gathered signatures for several initiatives in recent years, this new tax repeal effort garnered a record amount of signatures in the shortest amount of time yet, said Hallie Herzberg, director of communications for Let’s Go Washington.