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n Portland, celebration of the new domestic partnership law is now on hold. Last week, a federal judge approved Alliance Defense Fund's (ADF) request for a temporary injunction of Oregon's law, which was set to take effect on January 1. At stake in the debate is a citizen referendum that pro-family groups put in motion shortly after Governor Ted Kulongoski (D) signed the bill granting homosexual couples the same rights as married spouses. Attorneys for ADF argued that the Oregon Secretary of State, as well as several country clerks, invalidated voters' signatures on a citizen petition, causing the referendum to fall five names shy of the number needed for it to appear on the November ballot. In some instances, officials "falsely determined that signatures did not match their corresponding voter registration cards." Other signatures were invalidated because the individuals were not registered to vote, even though they were. Oregon's regulations mandate that if a person's signature has been invalidated, the citizen must be notified. In this instance, few were. Even if the state had a legitimate complaint about some signatures, activists had gathered 6,000 more than the law required. Try as they might, state officials cannot succeed in sabotaging the democratic process. We applaud our allies at ADF who, like us, want to insure that no amount of government bullying will silence the voice of the citizenry.
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Judge Halts Implementation of Oregon Homosexual "Domestic Partnership" Law