Bad News:R-71 may have enough signatures to bring gay marriage to a vote Washington.
Good News: Families Standing Together filed a lawsuit asking for an injunction to keep the referendum off the ballot.
Washington Families Standing Together says the secretary of state has not complied with the law in processing R-71. Signature gatherers are supposed to sign declarations saying that signatures they've collected are valid to the best of their knowledge and that they personally circulated the petition, the lawsuit says. Attorney David Burman said there were petitions with 2,058 signatures in which there was no name and no signature from the person collecting them.
The plaintiffs in the case also say the secretary of state was ignoring requirements that say only registered voters can sign petitions. The lawsuit says that on Aug. 17 Secretary of State Sam Reed told his staff to ignore the date in voter files as the voter registration date and accept signatures from people who were not cleared to vote when they signed.
"If the secretary of state had followed what we believe was the correct legal advice this referendum would not have qualified," Burman told the judge.
A decision will be issued Wednesday.
1 comment:
R71 qualifying should come as no surprise to you. The counting process was readjusted after the fact and signees were being accepted even though they weren't registered voters.
Post a Comment