What do you think about the article, “Washington Secretary of State Says Referendum 71 Has Enough …”?
Expanded domestic partnerships for same-sex couples could face a public vote after Washington officials ruled that referendum sponsors have enough voter support to force a referendum on the November ballot. The new partnership law, nicknamed “everything but marriage” by its supporters, would broaden domestic partnerships by granting gay and lesbian couples all the remaining state-provided benefits that presently apply only to married heterosexual couples. After a month of counting petition signatures, the secretary of state’s office said Monday that Referendum 71 had 121,486 valid voter signatures – nearly a thousand more than needed to advance to the general election.
On August 31, the office of Washington’s Secretary of State said that Referendum-71 had at least 1,000 more valid signatures than were needed. See this story. The Referendum was filed to block a law passed by the legislature, to let same-sex couples have the same legal rights that married couples have. The referendum petition campaign has created two different lawsuits. One, in federal court, is over whether the names of petition signers should be public. The other, in lower state court, questions whether certain signatures should have been disallowed.
