Seattle, Wash., Sep 2, 2009 / 04:55 am
Preliminary, unofficial figures from the Washington state Elections Division shows that a sufficient number of signatures have been gathered to place on the ballot Referendum 71, a measure that would preserve the unique place of marriage by rescinding the state legislature’s expansion of homosexual domestic partnership benefits.
Protect Marriage Washington, which is sponsoring the proposal, submitted nearly 138,000 signatures on July 25. State checkers of the signatures accepted 121,617 signatures. According to David Ammons, writing on the blog of the Washington Secretary of State’s Office, 120,557 were required to secure a ballot spot.
The ballot proposal, known as Referendum 71, would overturn Senate Bill 5688, which passed the Washington legislature in April. The bill gave homosexual couples all the state-provided benefits that married couples receive.
The law was supposed to take effect July 26 but was delayed until the signature count was completed, the Associated Press says. The law will not take effect unless it is approved in the November 3 election.