Ballot prospects for Washington anti-gay rights measure dim

Election workers counted the highest percentage of invalid petition signatures for anti-gay Referendum 71 today. "It is almost 15 percent today and that drives the cumulative error rate over 13.5 percent," says secretary of state's office spokesman David Ammons. "The maximum error rate that they can withstand is 12.43 percent, so they are currently exceeding that."

Referendum backers need 120,577 valid signatures to secure a spot on the general election ballot; they turned in 137,689 signatures on July 25.

The most recent numbers were posted this evening on a new web page ( http://wei.secstate.wa.gov/osos/en/initiativesReferenda/Pages/R-71SignatureStats.aspx ) designated solely for reporting Referendum 71 updates. In addition to charts like the one above, the secretary of state's office will also be posting charts of invalidated signatures, explaining why certain signatures are tossed out. The vast majority are disqualified because the names don't appear on state voter rolls.

More here: http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2009/08/06/r-71-errors-keep-rising

The secretary of state's office said Thursday that the latest daily signature count for a referendum seeking to overturn Washington's new "everything but marriage" same-sex domestic partner law showed a rejection rate near 15 percent.

That means Referendum 71's chances of making the fall ballot are diminishing.

R-71 proponents turned in 137,689 signatures - 14 percent more than the minimum needed to be placed on the November ballot. Whether Referendum 71 will ultimately qualify is still unclear. Referendum sponsors need 120,577 valid signatures to earn a place on the November ballot.

On Thursday election workers checked another 3,831 signatures, said secretary of state spokesman Dave Ammons. Of those, 3,258 were accepted and 573 rejected -- 462 because they weren't on the state list of voters, 22 because the signature appeared on petitions more than once, 74 because the signature didn't match the sginature on file, and 15 pending county confirmation with a signature that can be matched with the petition signature.

"Grand totals so far: 27,288 checked, with 23,593 and 3,695 rejected -- 3,226 for being a nonvoter, 90 duplicates, 295 for signature not matching and 84 pending county confirmation," Ammons said.

More here: http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattlepolitics/archives/175688.asp?from=blog_last3

The Washington Secretary of State is now posting all the results of the Referendum 71 signature validation effort to-date here: http://wei.secstate.wa.gov/osos/en/initiativesReferenda/Pages/R-71SignatureStats.aspx
Starting August 6th, they added a 2nd shift of signature checkers to accelerate the process. The day shift works from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. and the swing shift will work from 3:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. Day shift numbers will be posted that same afternoon, while swing shift numbers will be posted the following morning. The SoS anticipates wrapping up the process by August 17th. However, we could reach a mathematical point of no return days before then.

* 137,689 raw signatures were submitted.
* 120,577 validated signatures are needed to qualify the referendum for the ballot.
* The break point comes when either 17,113 signatures are invalidated or 120,577 signatures are validated.
* The overall signature invalidation rate the petition needs to stay below to qualify for the ballot is 12.43% (17,112/137,689).

More here: http://www.pamshouseblend.com/diary/12325/ongoing-referendum-71-signature-validation-update