Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Homo The Fine Print
Posted by Dominic Holden on Wed, Jun 10, 2009 at 1:04 PM
As of yesterday, none of the Slog commenters reported seeing a copy of the Referendum 71 petition, which is required to include a 114 page domestic-partnership bill on one piece of paper. But the Secretary of State's office has seen a copy. Here's what office spokesman David Ammons wrote about the petition this morning:
Referendum 71 petitions are required to cram all 114 pages of the “everything but marriage” domestic partnership bill (SB5688) in the text that circulates so that each potential signer could conceivably read every word before deciding whether to sign. State law also requires the whole shebang to be on “one sheet” and “readable.” Sponsors, who are now in the field looking for over 120,000 valid voter signatures during the next six weeks, have designed a layout that uses small font and printing the text on a fold-out that has eight “pages.” The whole petition, when unfolded, is map-sized, nearly 2 feet by 3 feet, front and back.
And here's the photo:
Has anyone actually spotted one of these things?
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1
Can you remind me, am I supposed to be for this or against it.
I lost track of which is a referendum against a decision and vice versa.
Or it you don't like Domestic Partnership because it's not Gay Marriage.
WWAGD ??
Can you remind me, am I supposed to be for this or against it.
I lost track of which is a referendum against a decision and vice versa.
Or it you don't like Domestic Partnership because it's not Gay Marriage.
WWAGD ??
2
Do we get slog points for "accidentally" tearing the mother fucker in half? If one were to have such an accident would it affect the validity of said motherfucking petition?
3
"Protect Children." How does this referendum protect children? I'm a gay parent. Whether or not I'm married, how does my child get more or less protection from this?
6
Seems to me this is contrary to ADA requirements - people older than 40 can't read the text.
Which makes it illegal.
Which makes it illegal.
7
If someone sees this thing, and has some time to kill, maybe you can start reading the thing and then ask the petition gatherer questions about the referendum. Keep the petition and gatherer busy in the hands of a non-signer while a potential signer walks on by.
8
@7
I was thinking exactly the same thing. Go track one of those petitioners down when you have a few spare hours to kill and read the whole fucking thing beginning to end. Better yet, tell them your vision's bad and could they please read it to you. Ask lots of questions. Finally, of course, walk away without signing it.
I was thinking exactly the same thing. Go track one of those petitioners down when you have a few spare hours to kill and read the whole fucking thing beginning to end. Better yet, tell them your vision's bad and could they please read it to you. Ask lots of questions. Finally, of course, walk away without signing it.
9
I feel like I should order up a whole bunch of these and then sit on them. Is there a number I can call?
10
honestly ... I give them credit for their passionate stance on the subject.
So do they hate gay marriage or just trees?
So do they hate gay marriage or just trees?
16
A problem: Government-phobic populists -- who are legion in WA -- even otherwise left-leaning ones -- will sign the referendum solely in response to the size of the bill being referred. (Referended? Whatever.)
18
I ordered my very own to shit on, but have not received them yet. You can get yours too here!
http://survey.constantcontact.com/survey…
http://survey.constantcontact.com/survey…
20
I don't get it. How can they title it Preserve Marriage, Protect Children? That's not the title of the referendum.
22
If I was a local, I would so want to get one of these just so I could pass it amongst my friends and we could all sign it with such clever pseudonyms like "Seymour Butts" and "Ivana Mann" and then I'd frame it in our living room.
But I'm sort of a dork.
But I'm sort of a dork.
23
hum... is that legal...
The petition sheets must measure not less than 11 inches in
width and not less than 14 inches in length.p.9
and
The full text of the measure must appear on the petitionp.9
http://www.secstate.wa.gov/_assets/elect…
The petition sheets must measure not less than 11 inches in
width and not less than 14 inches in length.p.9
and
The full text of the measure must appear on the petitionp.9
http://www.secstate.wa.gov/_assets/elect…
24
I'm torn between ordering some to bring down their coffers, and not wanting to give them my addy and phone number. I wonder how much they're checking on validity of numbers, cause I could have it sent to my work...
27
#17, the edges don't line up. The photo is the full, unfolded sheet, right?
It totally looks like four sheets taped together.
It totally looks like four sheets taped together.
29
@ 4, 17,27,28. What you think is one page is two sideways pages. Note that the ruler on the right is 18 inches long. So it is two pages across and 4 pages down. Or 22inches across and 34 inches down.
32
@ everyone. 1 Sheet = 2 pages. Each side of a sheet of paper is called a page. This is an 8-page signature, 4 sheets x 2 sides each = 8-pages.
34
It looks like each of those hold about 20 signatures. Needing 120k signatures = 6000 of those things to fill out. Ha!
36
If they are taped together, I wonder if they will actually assemble them before getting the signatures or not bother until afterward...
38
I know these fuckahs are inherently sleazy and dishonest, but doesn't the Referendum itself specifically state that domestic partnership is not marriage? And how does it protect children, exactly? And how come they get to use those two false claims to begin with??
40
Could they have put "Sign This and Get $1,000,000!" as the caption, too? Can any signature petition for a referendum put any title they want?
41
Would it be wrong for everyone to sign these petitions as Dan Savage, so they think they have a lot more signatures than they do?
42
i plan on reading the entire thing if someone asks me to sign...if enough people did that, I bet they'd have an even harder time getting all of the signatures!
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