according to the article in today's paper, but it does look like their R-74 signature collecting is gaining steam. I can't believe that just yesterday I was hoping that because there hadn't been any recent news, that could mean the asshats were failing in their "effort". The last I'd heard (about two weeks ago), there was a report that Preserve Marriage Washington was considering hiring people to go out and spread around petitions and that they only had gathered little more than half of the minimum number of required signatures. So I get today's Times and there's the "news", right on the front page:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2018282329_gaymarriage25m.html
Opponents of gay-marriage law get unexpected aid: from Muslims
By Lornet Turnbull
Seattle Times staff reporter
With less than two weeks to go, organizers of the Referendum 74 campaign to roll back the state's same-sex-marriage law say they have surpassed the minimum number of signatures needed to qualify for the November ballot — with thousands more rolling in each day.
Some of that support is coming in from an unexpected place: Muslims, who as a community have traditionally remained silent on the question of gay marriage.
In recent weeks, several area mosques have requested thousands of Ref. 74 petitions to circulate among their members, and through November, Muslims plan to campaign alongside religious conservatives seeking to overturn the law.
On Wednesday, Preserve Marriage Washington, which is seeking to repeal the gay-marriage law with backing from the National Organization for Marriage, was reporting 127,211 signatures — 6,634 names more than the minimum required to qualify for the ballot. Organizers need to get — and the Secretary of State encourages — at least 150,000 signatures to ensure a sufficient number of them are from qualified registered voters.
As disheartening as this seems, it'll be extremely important to make sure we all do our best to get out the word on how confusing those ballots might appear to people who absolutely do support marriage equality...like you've stated,
Yes on R-74 and No on I-1192!
(and I've still got my hopes up that validating signatures may snarl things for them and we'll all wake to a glorious new day in Washington on June 7th...and we'll be able to heap congratulations on you by June 10th!)
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