Law Office of John S. Palmer Attorney at Law

R-74 Headed to Public Vote

Posted Wednesday, June 6, 2012 by John S. Palmer

Opponents of Washington’s new law authorizing civil marriage for same-sex couples have submitted an estimated 232,000 petition signatures in support of Referendum 74 which would require a public vote on the law this fall. It is anticipated that additional signatures will be submitted before the end of the day. The signatures submitted so far are sufficient to block the law from taking effect tomorrow as scheduled.

The Washington Secretary of State’s office will now undergo the process of validating the signatures. 120,577 valid voter signatures are required, and it appears that the group behind the referendum, Preserve Marriage Washington, will be submitting approximately twice that many, which means the law will almost certainly be on hold until after the election is certified on Dec. 6.

Updates can be found at the Washington Secretary of State’s website. My previous blog post on what the law would do can be found here.

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