Nov 3, 2009 Washington State election
Posted: Sun, 18 Oct 2009, 20:52:00, GMT | 1073 views Share
November 3, 2009 is the next general election in Washington State. There are a bunch of issues and elections up for a vote; by far the most important is "Referendum 71", which is a state-wide vote on whether or not same-sex couples in Washington State should have legal protection and recognition. It is not a marriage vote, does not create marriage rights in the state (unfortunately). What it does do is create and enhance a legal framework for couples who want to be in a committed relationship and have some protection under the law.
Voters must vote to APPROVE Referendum 71 in order to implement the legal protections for same-sex couples. It is frustrating that this is even up for a statewide vote. The state legislatures in the Washington House and Senate we elect to deliberate, research and represent our interests already thoroughly debated this issue. They voted overwhelmingly to pass this legal protection, and the governor signed the bill. One of the joys of the state's checks-and-balances system is that with enough signatures of state voters, anyone can "pause" the enactment of a law and force the issue to go to a statewide vote at the next general election. As you can imagine, there are still plenty of narrow-minded and bigoted people in the world, and unfortunately enough of them live in Washington State. So the opponents of equal rights did gather enough signatures to force this bill to go to a statewide vote - now people just need to vote YES for Ref 71 and the law will go into effect with legal protection and recognition. (On a side note, it is a good reminder that there are bigots across all sorts of beliefs, not just around equal rights for gays. The recent story about a Louisiana Justice of the Peace who refused to marry an interracial couple is just one of the recent examples.)
In addition to Referendum 71 (objective overview of Ref 71 here), there are a bunch of other items up for a vote. Here are a few links with my suggestions and places with good info for helping people decide how to vote!
- Initiative 1033 - VOTE NO - restricting how local revenue can be used, increased, and mandating certain refunds
- Seattle Times Endorsements are a great source for specific endorsements and rationale - most of these I have voted in line with their suggestions
So anyway, we are now just hoping that the Royal Mail postal strike does not prevent our paper ballot from reaching the Seattle processing office in time!