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GallToday!
To Refer or Repeal?
Anti-gay forces submit signatures
by Julie Sabatier
U
(X) close to call” was the word from both
process with the county elections offices. Each
sides when opponents of Oregon’s new
county will take a random sample of 5 percent of the
nondiscrimination and domestic part­
signatures and check them against voter registration
nership laws delivered boxes of signed
cards on file in that county.
petitions to the secretary of state’s office.
Because of duplications and other errors, signa­
In order to refer the new laws to the 2008 ballot, the
ture validity rates fluctuate between 70 percent and
ad-h(K group needed to collect 55,179 signatures for
86 percent. Conley says that when volunteers like
each petition.
Shannon and her fellow activists gather signatures,
“It’s very close. I’d feel much more confident if
they have a higher validity rate than paid signature
we had 15 percent over,” said former state Sen.
gatherers. For example, petition signatures for
Marylin Shannon, R-Salem, whose home served as
Ballot Measure 36, which amended the Oregon
the central location for signed petitions on the
Constitution to ban same-sex marriage, were
Sept. 26 deadline. She said she thought the group
collected by volunteers with a validity rate of more
collected nearly 63,000 signatures.
than 80 percent.
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Nine boxes containing the petitions to overturn two gay rights laws were delivered to the Capitol
on Sept. 26.
According to Mary Conley, spokeswoman for
In order for Petition 303 to qualify for the
Oregon Secretary of State Bill Bradbury, the
ballot, 91.2 percent of the signatures would have to
numbers are significantly lower than Shannon’s
be valid. This validity rate would break records in
estimate. Once the duplicates and signature
Oregon, according to Conley.
errors were weeded out, there were 60,531 for
“That is a really high number, and it would be
Petition 303, the domestic partnership referendum.
unprecedented. We’ve never had a 91 percent
The total for Petition 304, the referendum for the
validity rate. So I’m sure this will all be very close­
nondiscrimination law, was not available by press
ly watched,” she said.
time but is expected to be similar.
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If it turns out that the amount of valid signa­
John Hummel, executive director of Basic
tures falls short of the 55,179 needed to qualify the
Rights Oregon, the state’s largest nonprofit gay
referenda, Shannon says her group might consider
rights organization, says he is cautiously opti­
a repeal initiative. In that case, the domestic
mistic. “It turns out that they had less support
partnership and nondiscrimination laws would go
than they thought they had, and that’s great
into effect Jan. 1, 2008, and those who oppose the
news...everyone who cares about equality in the
new laws would have until July 3, 2008, to collect
state of Oregon. Everything that BRO has been
82,769 signatures in order to put an initiative on
doing to move forward with planning and prepar­
the November ballot that, if passed by the voting
ing a campaign will remain in place, because we
public, would repeal those laws.
have to be prepared if our rights are going to be
put up for a vote in 2008.”
“We’re confident that Oregonians will vote to
uphold our laws,” said Hummel. “It’s our hope that
Elections office employees tallied all of the sheets
both will fail, that the referenda will turn out not
and divided them up by county under the watchful
Michael Spiegel
to have gathered enough signatures and that, if
eyes of volunteer observers from kith BRO and the
Family Service Coordinator
referendum campaign. Now that the elections office
their petition gathering goes forward for a (repeal)
initiative, that will not be successful.” ®
has entered all of the data from the sheets into its
computer system, the next step is a verification
Check B log O ut at www.justout.com for updates