UPDATE: Gregoire signs domestic partner law; challenge afoot
A ballot challenge is afoot to Washington’s new “everything but marriage” domestic partnership expansion.
Just hours after Governor Gregoire signed Senate Bill 5688 in Seattle, the Attorney General released the paperwork necessary for foes to begin their work to secure a November vote on the measure. The Attorney General had been waiting for the governor to take action — she could sign it, veto it entirely or veto sections.
Jay Geck, deputy solicitor general, sent Secretary of State Reed a ballot title for Referendum 71, briefly stating the subject — expansion of rights and responsibilities for state-registered domestic partners. A longer summary also is provided.
The sponsors now have one final hurdle before they can print petitions and start collecting voter signatures — both friends and foe can head to Thurston County Superior Court to seek a revision to the ballot title. That can take a week.
Sponsors will have until July 25 to collect 120,577 valid signatures to secure a place on the November 3 statewide ballot.
The domestic partner registry is a program of the Office of Secretary of State. As of late Monday, nearly 5,400 couples were registered, both same-sex couples and heterosexual couples where one partner is 62 or older. The web site is here.
4 thoughts on “UPDATE: Gregoire signs domestic partner law; challenge afoot”
That ballot title is completely confusing. Nowhere does it say that it repeals Bill #5688. I don’t understand it at all. If it gets enough signatures, but fails to pass, then 5688 would be repealed? That doesn’t make any sense at all, and I don’t know how anyone is going to even understand what’s going on, let alone vote on it.
excellent question! we answer it in a fresh new blog post today.
A newly signed law is expected to take effect soon. We’d like to read about what rights are being conferred by that law and how it will affect Washingtonians.
Why is this blog skewed toward encouraging the activities of potential petitioners and not toward reporting what the outcomes are for our citizens and the long-anticipated civil rights that are expected now that our governor has signed SB#5688?
The departmental page at: http://www.secstate.wa.gov/corps/domesticpartnerships/ offers no guidance about the new law. This blog is not reporting on the hard work already accomplished by our Governor and our legislature. So WHERE should we turn to learn about what already has happened for the benefit of all Washingtonians? Those answers would be more appropriate here than the post about potentialities.
Our family anxiously awaits your reply so that we may educate ourselves about our ‘new’ civil rights.
Thanks for writing. We have repeatedly linked to the bill reports that describe the contents and the effect of the measure — and followed the progress on the legislation through the process. We continue to report the next phase of the process, which will be a referendum election we will conduct if sponsors gather adequate signatures. As we have previously reported, the new law ordinarily would take effect July 26 (90 days after the legislative session ended), but with the filing of the referendum attempt, the law will be on hold until after the election is conducted and certified, if the referendum sponsors collect enough signatures to secure a place on the November ballot. If the new law is approved by the voters, it will go into effect sometime in December; if it is rejected, it will not go into effect. If referendum sponsors don’t submit enough signatures to qualify, then the measure will go into effect right away.
As with other significant piece of legislation, there are plenty of good sources of detailed information. My favorites would be the Legislature’s analyses (www.leg.wa.gov, and look up the bill you want to know more about), media coverage, and advocacy groups you trust.
Comments are closed.