Will foes hold up gay benefits?
Saturday, July 25th, 2009OLYMPIA — The state’s latest expansion of domestic partnerships for gay couples was hanging in limbo Friday as opponents announced a final push to force a public vote, calling their effort so far “too close to call.”
In a statement to supporters, organizers of the Referendum 71 campaign said they will have at least the minimum 120,577 petition signatures needed by today to qualify for the ballot.
However, R-71 organizer Gary Randall said the campaign doesn’t have enough extra signatures to act as a cushion for erroneous or duplicate petition signatures, which must come from registered Washington voters.
Appeal to supporters
To help meet the deadline, Randall appealed to R-71 supporters to gather additional signatures and drive them to the state Capitol this afternoon.
“We’re not trying to have a rally or anything,” Randall said. “We need the signatures, we truly do.”
The new “everything but marriage” expansion of domestic partnerships is scheduled to take effect Sunday, but the law will be delayed if referendum sponsors turn in their petitions.
If the campaign has enough valid signatures, the law would not take effect unless approved by voters in the November election.
Once the secretary of state’s office receives the signatures today, they will go into a vault. The process of counting and verifying them begins next week, and verification could go until the last week of August, said Brian Zylstra, a spokesman for the secretary of state’s office.
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