This morning, King County Superior Court denied  gay rights activists' motion to keep R-71 off the ballot. Here is Judge Julie Spector's ruling.


R-71 asks voters to approve or reject state legislation passed earlier this year that put domestic partners on an equal legal footing with married couples.

However, Judge Spector did not rule on the substance of opponents' objections to placing R-71 on the ballot. In fact, the ruling says: "The Court recognizes the concerns raised by the plaintiffs regarding the validity of a significant number of  petitions and signatures in this case."

The plaintiffs, lesbian attorney Anne Levinson and a pro-gay rights group called Washington Families Standing Together, argued that thousands of signatures did not meet petition requirments like, for example, state law that says you must be a registered voter for your signature to count.

The ruling states:

"The Secretary of State concedes that he instructed his staff to accept signatures of voters who were not registered when they signed the petition. The Court notes that the plain laguage of the Washington State Constitution ... requires voters to be registered before signging. While it may be common practive for individuals to register simultaneously with signing referendum petitions, and it may even be good policy, that does not mean that the practice is in accordance with Washington law. No Washington Court has ever considered this issue, but state supreme courts in other jurisdictions have decided resoudingly against the Secretary of State's position.

While idicating that the signatures may be invalid, the Court simply said it didn't have the jurisdiction to rule on the Secretary  of State's authority and passed the buck to Thurston County Superior Court.