An antigay organization
aiming to repeal Washington state's domestic-partnership
laws has until July 25 to collect the 125,000 signatures
needed for a ballot initiative in the fall. Protect
Marriage Washington reported to the secretary of state today
that it's closing in on 100,000 signatures.
According to
The Stranger
, Protect Marriage Washington reported to the secretary of
state that it had collected about 75,000 signatures as of July
15. Larry Stickney, president of the Washington Values
Alliance, which runs Protect Marriage, told Advocate.com that
75,000 is their best estimate, but "we think we're
closing in on 100,000 now."
Stickney added that his
organization has brought in more than 1,000 volunteers to
collect signatures from people across the state.
"If they come back
in at the rate they've gone out, we're going to get
this thing," he said on Thursday.
When asked whether
signature authenticity may be a problem with so many
volunteers, Stickney said he is not too worried with that
process.
"[The secretary of
state's office] will take a sampling, and make that
determination," he said. "Usually when you're
dealing with churchgoing folks, as we have in times past -- the
last time I headed an initiative, we had the highest percentage
of validated signatures up to that point -- we expect it to be
pretty good."
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