Peninsula Daily News News Services
OLYMPIA — An attempt to block a statewide vote on expanded benefits for domestic partners is back in court next week.
Thurston County Superior Court Judge Thomas McPhee will hear arguments Tuesday afternoon in a lawsuit brought by Washington Families Standing Together.
The group claims that Secretary of State Sam Reed, the state’s top elections official, improperly accepted thousands of petition signatures. Reed disagrees, and the state is defending his agency’s practices.
The group’s previous attempt to block Referendum 71 was turned away Wednesday in King County for technical reasons.
The referendum’s sponsor, a group called Protect Marriage Washington, wants a public vote on the “everything but marriage” law, in hopes of overturning broader domestic partnership benefits for gay couples.
