Opponents of Washington state's gay
marriage law say they have collected enough signatures to put it on
the November ballot.
Preserve Marriage Washington, the
coalition of groups attempting to block the law from taking effect on
June 7, said on its website that it has collected over 153,000
signatures, more than the 120,577 valid signatures needed by June 6.
Officials recommend that campaigns submit 150,000 signatures to head
off invalid or duplicate entries.
“We feel that it's going to be
adequate to get it on the ballot,” Joseph Backholm, executive
director of the Family Policy Institute of Washington, a member of
Preserve Marriage Washington, told The
Seattle Times. “We're quite confident of that.”
Backholm added that the total number of
signatures could hit 200,000.
Supporters of the law said they always
expected opponents to put it up to a popular vote.
“We always expected them to reach the
number,” said Zach Silk, a spokesman for Washington United for
Marriage, the coalition of groups working to preserve the law.
“We've been preparing our campaign to talk to voters. We believe
at the end of the day they'll side with us to uphold the law.”
Voters in 2009 rejected an effort to
repeal a domestic partnership law which gave gay couples all the
protections of marriage.