The Elections Division’s signature checkers have reviewed just over 9,000 new Referendum 71 signatures . The cumulative signature check total is now more than 97,000, almost two-thirds of the total submitted in late July.

Nearly 86,000 signatures have been accepted and almost 11,400 rejected for one reason or another. The signature error rate has dropped from yesterday’s 11.97 percent to the current rate of 11.68 percent. The overall rejection rate must not go over 12.4 percent if R-71 is to go on the ballot.

The latest update showed these totals: 97,287 checked, with 85,920 accepted and 11,367 rejected. The R-71 sponsors, Protect Marriage Washington, need 120,577 valid Washington voter signatures for the referendum to be placed on the November statewide ballot. The sponsors are trying to overturn the recently adopted “everything but marriage” law (SB 5688) that expands state rights and responsibilities to state-registered domestic partners so that they equal those granted to married couples.

The rejections so far are broken down as follows: 9,347 people whose registrations not found, 947 whose petition signature did not match the one on file, 1,021 duplicates and 52 cases where checkers have asked that the voter’s home county for an electronic signature that can be compared with the signature on the petition.       

The results of the recent registration check are included in today’s numbers.  For more on the results of the recent registration check, check out this post .

The referendum checkers have reviewed about 450 volumes or “batches” of 15 petition sheets, each bearing up to 20 signatures. There are 623 volumes overall.