Gay marriage law opponents filing for referendum

Opponents of the marriage equality law approved by the legislature will turn in more than 200,000 signatures Wednesday blocking the law from taking effect Thursday.

Opponents say they have enough signatures to qualify Referendum 74 for the November ballot.

This will be the thirty-third time voters in the US will be asked to legalize same sex marriage. It has been rejected the previous 32 times.

Joseph Backholm, with Preserve Marriage Washington, the group that drove the signature gathering campaign, thinks the Washington decision will fall in line with previous votes.

“This is not about fairness or equality, this is about what is the definition of marriage and we expect Washington state will agree with the other states that marriage is between a man and a woman.”

Zack Silk, with Washington United for Marriage which worked to pass the marriage equality law through the legislature, says he thinks Washington voters will support the same sex marriage law.

“We want to live in a state where we treat people as we want to be treated, and we want people that are in loving committed relationships to be able to be married, and we think that’s something most Washingtonians understand.”

Both local campaigns are going to get millions of dollars from outside Washington for ads and message control. This campaign could cost more than $15 million.

“We expect Washington to be a front in a larger cultural debate,” says Backholm. “We expect that a lot of money is going to be spent trying to have marriage redefined and made genderless and we are hopeful that we will also be able to raise an adequate amount of resources to respond and get our message out.”

Silk says his campaign feels like they have the momentum and are working hard to maintain that.

“We are in a strong position, but we don’t underestimate our opponent. They’ve won 32 out of 32 of these, and they’re really good at running these campaigns, so we’re going to have to be diligent and work really hard to get our message out,” says Silk.

There have been two recent polls. One has a double digit lead for marriage equality. The second has it within the margin of error.

Sarah Dutton, the director of surveys for CBS News, says voters shouldn’t pay attention to polls this early in a race.

“Americans have other things on their mind and other things taking their attention during the summer. This is a tough time to be looking at polls because voters aren’t paying a lot of attention. You tend to see more volatility.”

Dutton says polling on referendums can be tricky because the wording can be difficult to understand for those being asked the questions.

“I think the wording of referendums sometimes can really muddy the waters and make it confusing for the voter to understand what they’re saying yes or no to. My guess is that’s what those polling numbers reflect.”

Referendum 74 might confuse voters because those in support of Washington’s marriage equality law, would vote to approve the referendum, even though Referendum 74 was put to voters by opponents of the law.