Last day of in-person registration for voters not currently registered in Washington State for the November 3 General Election is Monday October 26. Last day for mail in and online voter registrations for the 11/3 General Election was Monday October 5.
Vote by Mail 38 of Washington's 39 counties vote by mail. Pierce County still maintains poll sites. Click here to find out more about voting by mail.
Filed: 05/04/2009 Sponsor
Mr. Lawrence Stickney
P.O. Box 501
Arlington, WA 98223
Phone: 360-631-1894
lstickney@valuesaction.org
Ballot Title
Statement of Subject: The legislature passed Engrossed Second Substitute Senate Bill 5688 concerning rights and responsibilities of state-registered domestic partners [and voters have filed a sufficient referendum petition on this bill].
Concise Description: This bill would expand the rights, responsibilities, and obligations accorded state-registered same-sex and senior domestic partners to be equivalent to those of married spouses, except that a domestic partnership is not a marriage.
Ballot Measure Summary
Same-sex couples, or any couple that includes one person age sixty-two or older, may register as a domestic partnership with the state. Registered domestic partnerships are not marriages, and marriage is prohibited except between one man and one woman. This bill would expand the rights, responsibilities, and obligations of registered domestic partners and their families to include all rights, responsibilities, and obligations granted by or imposed by state law on married couples and their families. Certified to Ballot on September 2, 2009View Complete Text
Reaction to Referendum 71 Ed Murray, who sponsored the initial domestic partnership legislation in 2007, stated: "While it's regrettable that a referendum is being filed to undo the progress we made this session to treat gay and lesbian families the same as married families, I don't believe that voters will decide in November to take away rights from anyone…"
Organizations favoring the original legislation and opposing putting the issue up for referendum, such as Equal Rights Washington and Washington Families Standing Together, led the 'Decline to Sign' campaign, urging voters not to sign the petitions to put the referendum on the November 2009 ballot.
Confusion surrounding Referendum 71 Since the Washington State law mandates that when an existing law is put up for a referendum, voters must either "approve" to confirm the law or "reject" to oppose it. Therefore, the movement to allow the bill to be enacted WITHOUT a referendum was called "Decline to Sign" and urged people to oppose Referendum 71, by NOT signing the petition. Hence, at that time, people who wanted to repeal the law were 'pro-71' and those who wanted the law to stand where 'anti-71'. However, once the petition to place Referendum 71 on the ballot was found to be valid, the labeling becomes confusing. The ballot wording is such that voters vote in the affirmative to approve the law to approve domestic partnership or in the negative to reject the referendum (and domestic partnership).
Communities awarded $200,000 in local record preservation grants
OLYMPIA... Thirty-seven local governments throughout Washington are receiving a total of nearly $200,000 through the Local Records Grant Program, which helps local governments meet their responsibilities for preserving and improving access to public records.
The program is run in cooperation with the state Archives Oversight Committee.
Secretary of State Sam Reed announced the grants to the 37 awardees to digitize and microfilm their archival records. These awards were selected from a list of 86 applications requesting a total of an estimated $524,000.
"The grants going to these nearly 40 deserving local entities will help preserve archival records for future generations, and we’re very pleased to help support these fine projects," said Deputy Archivist Terry Badger.
Grant recipients include Algona, Arlington, Carbonado, Cashmere, Chelan, Chewelah, Clark County Fire & Rescue, Clyde Hill, Colville, Connell, DuPont, Duvall, Everson, Garfield, Granite Falls, Island County Fire District #1, Kahlotus, King County Boundary Review Board, Leavenworth, Mesa, Monroe, Mukilteo, Othello, Roslyn, Sedro-Woolley, Skykomish, Snohomish Health District, Snohomish School District #201, Snohomish, Spokane County Fire District #13, Vancouver Public Schools, White Salmon, Wilbur, Wilkeson, Yakima and Yarrow Point. To see the entire list of recipients and the amounts awarded, click on http://www.sos.wa.gov/_assets/archives/_news/2009-2011%20AWARDS.pdf.
Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed, whose public-service career spans more than 30 years in a county and state government, has been selected by GOVERNING magazine and online service as one of America’s top officials of the year.
