A Secret No More: Petition Names Released

An alternative newspaper in Seattle has posted on the Internet the once-secret list of more than 100,000 people who signed a petition while trying to overturn domestic partnerships in Washington.

The signers supported adding Referendum 71 to the ballot, putting the domestic partnership law up to a vote. The public ended up voting to keep the law on the books.

And ever since, the group Protect Marriage Washington has been trying to keep the petitioners' names out of the public eye. But a judge ruled earlier this month that the names would have to become public. The Seattle Weekly is the first to post all of them for download, claiming that a court order was "too late" to stop them and you from seeing them.

PMW is affiliated with the National Organization for Marriage, which has lost several cases in which its tried to hide its donors, for example.

"Even though an emergency court order has stopped the state from releasing the names, for five days the enormous file of names was public and we got our copy while it could still be got," wrote Curtis Cartier.

The complete files (which are enormous) can be downloaded via the Seattle Weekly website.