Referendum 71

Referendum 71 (R-71) was a vote held in 2009 in which the people of Washington state confirmed Senate Bill 5688, a law extending the rights and obligations of domestic partnership in Washington state. The Bill was approved 53% to 47%; this marked the first time in the United States that voters had approved a statewide ballot measure that extended LGBT relationship rights, although Arizona voters had previously rejected a ban on same-sex marriages and civil unions in 2006 (only to pass civil-unions-neutral Proposition 102 two years later). The law went into effect the day the election was certified, December 3, 2009.

Senate Bill 5688 was signed by Governor Christine Gregoire on May 18, 2009. On July 25, 2009, the organization Protect Marriage Washington turned in 137,881 signatures to the Washington Secretary of State's office. 120,577 valid signatures were required to qualify the referendum for the November 2009 ballot. After a complete count of all submitted signatures, 122,007 were officially verified on September 1, 2009.

Under the Constitution of the State of Washington, laws passed by the legislature do not take effect until ninety days after the close of the legislative session, unless the state legislature declares an "emergency" requiring the law to take effect immediately. During this ninety-day period citizens can attempt to force a referendum by gathering the required number of signatures. Under the constitution, that number is equal to four percent of the number of voters in the previous gubernatorial election. If enough signatures are gathered and presented to the Secretary of State before the ninety days have elapsed, then the law is placed on hold, and does not take effect unless it is approved by referendum held at the same time as the next election.

Enactment of the Olympia-approved law was initially halted pending signature-verification; having received sufficient valid signatures to require voter re-confirmation, the state extended the hold until the results of the 2009 general election were made official.

Washington state law mandates that when a measure already signed into law is put up for a referendum, voters vote either "approved" to confirm the law or "rejected" to oppose it. Thus, although the petition to put this law to a vote was circulated by its opponents, the ballot wording is such that voters vote in the affirmative to approve the law or in the negative to reject it.

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