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Tag: domestic partnerships

5 Questions about the R-71 check: What’s that you signed?

5 Questions about the R-71 check: What’s that you signed?

Good afternoon signature-check junkies! Our team is talking you through your R-71 check questions in our daily “5 Questions” post. You asked about dinging for dupes and signature sleuthing … and we say … Q) What’s the consequence for signing a petition multiple times? A) Most people who sign a petition more than once didn’t realize they have done so! Sometimes they don’t remember they had already signed the sheet, or get confused by the many petitions circulating around their town and…

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R-71 update: More than 110,000 names checked

R-71 update: More than 110,000 names checked

Exactly one month after the Referendum 71 petitions were delivered to the Office of Secretary of State, the latest update shows that signature checkers have reviewed over 110,000 signatures. More than 6,000 signatures have been counted since the Monday update, bringing the cumulative total to 110,288 checked signatures. Of this total, 97,261 have been accepted and 13,027 rejected for one reason or another. The overall error rate is now 11.81 percent, up slightly from the 11.72 percent reported Monday. The R-71…

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R-71 update: Signature count tops 100,000

R-71 update: Signature count tops 100,000

The Referendum 71 signature verification process has reached a milestone: Signature checkers have surpassed the 100,000 signature mark . The cumulative total is now nearly 104,000 checked signatures and just over 12,000 rejected for one reason or another. The overall error rate is 11.72 percent, barely up from 11.68 percent, which we reported Friday. In order to make the November statewide ballot, the referendum’s overall rejection rate must not go over 12.4 percent. Here are the latest totals: 103,898 checked,…

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Friday R-71 fix: Another 9,000 signatures counted

Friday R-71 fix: Another 9,000 signatures counted

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…

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R-71 update: Hundreds of signatures move into “accepted” pile after recheck

R-71 update: Hundreds of signatures move into “accepted” pile after recheck

As Dave Ammons mentioned in his blog post yesterday, the Referendum 71 signature checkers have been doing a “recent registration check” for signatures that had been rejected because they weren’t found in the copy of the state voter database used for checking signatures. Because the checkers have been working off the version of the database used to check the Initiative 1033 sigs earlier this summer, new voters who registered in July and signed a referendum petition sheet didn’t appear in…

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R-71: 9,000 new signatures counted

R-71: 9,000 new signatures counted

Signature checkers for the state Elections Division have scrutinized almost 9,000 new Referendum 71 signatures, bringing the  cumulative check total to over 88,000.   Over 77,000 signatures have been accepted and more than 10,000 rejected on various grounds, bringing the error rate so far to just under 12 percent. The daily update showed these cumulative totals: 88,191 checked, with 77,637 accepted and 10,554 rejected.  Sponsors, Protect Marriage Washington, need 120,577 valid Washington voter signatures if they are to gain a November…

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R-71 update: Checkers near 80k mark

R-71 update: Checkers near 80k mark

Referendum 71 sponsors now have nearly 70,000 signatures in their column, but still need another 50k to qualify for the Nov. 3 statewide ballot. The measure is sponsored by foes of the state’s newly adopted “everything but marriage” law that gives state-registered domestic partners the same state rights and responsibilities as married couples. As of the Wednesday evening report, Elections Division crews have now checked 79,195 names submitted by the sponsors,  a campaign group called Protect Marriage Washington. The total…

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Election officials: R-71 checkers using care, not rushing

Election officials: R-71 checkers using care, not rushing

Sponsors of Referendum 71, the effort to overturn Washington’s new “everything but marriage” domestic partnership law, are accusing the state Elections Division of rushing the signature-verification process and being biased against their effort.  Election officials at the Secretary of State’s office are pushing back, strongly defending their crew of signature-checkers as conducting the process with great care and diligence, not rushing through – and certainly not showing bias one way or the other about the legislation in question. Gary Randall…

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State fights for disclosure of R-71 petitions

State fights for disclosure of R-71 petitions

The state Elections Division soon heads to federal court to try to clear the way for public release of Referendum 71 petitions. Deputy Solicitor General James Pharris, who represents the Secretary of State, has filed the state’s response  to the continuing effort by R-71 sponsors to block disclosure of voters who signed their petitions. The sponsors, Protect Marriage Washington, asserting First Amendment rights and seeking protection against potential harassment or harm to signers, obtained a temporary order on July 29…

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R-71 count surges to nearly 73k

R-71 count surges to nearly 73k

The signature count for Referendum 71 surged to well over the half-way mark Tuesday, with 72,976 signatures now processed – and a cumulative error rate edging upward to 11.32 percent.  State Elections Division checkers, working double shifts and hoping to wrap up the count by month’s end, added an additional 7,000-plus new signatures and are now reporting results from 328 of the 623 bound volumes (15 petition sheets, each with between 1 and 20 signatures). Thus far, they’ve accepted 64,713 signatures…

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