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Washington’s Referendum 71 Hangs on This Question

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Did all the signatures belong to registered voters?

Gary Randall and Larry Stickney’s Protect Marriage Washington dumped well over 100,000 signatures off with Washington’s Secretary of State, but in order to be considered valid, they needed to belong to registered voters. Except PMW let non-registered citizens sign the ballot cards. Now the marriage equality group Washington Families Standing Together, suing to keep Ref. 71 — which was declared legit, even with invalid signatures — off the November ballot, wants a judge to declare the signature drive invalid.

Unless, of course, letting citizens sign the ballot cards was actually a form of voter registration itself, letting both processes take place at once.

Sec. of State Sam Reed’s office says what happened is the latter scenario — if only because of tradition; it can’t recall any ballot initiative that required signatures to belong to already-registered voters.

Fine. But did everyone show government-issued ID cards? ‘Cause we hear conservatives keep demanding that.

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