By RAELYNN RICARTE
News staff writer
February 6, 2008

A federal judge has tossed out a lawsuit against Hood River and 11 other counties for rejecting signatures on a referendum against Oregon’s “domestic partnership” law.

On Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Michael Mosman ruled the defendant counties had followed state protocol for validating signatures. He said no constitutional rights had been violated by the government agencies’ methodology.

“This ruling was the right thing for the judge to do,” said Hood River County Elections Supervisor Kim Haack.

“We followed the same process with this petition that we do for all of the others. For us to have done anything differently would have created an inequity.”

On Monday, Hood River residents David Bender, 46, and John Wishart, 48, exercised their new right to a legal relationship. Oregon has become the 10th state to pass a law that grants same-sex couples most of the same duties and benefits that married residents receive.

The Alliance Defense Fund, which challenged enactment of the law, believed the issue needed to be brought before voters. The Legislature and Gov. Ted Kulongoski passed House Bill 2007 last year to legalize domestic partnerships. The law had originally been scheduled to take effect on Jan. 1 this year but was delayed for one month so that ADF’s arguments could be aired in court.

ADF contended the rights of some opponents were violated when their signatures were rejected on a petition against HB2007. Referendum 303, which circulated statewide, fell 96 signatures short of the 55,179 needed to place the issue on the ballot in November 2009. Three signatures were rejected out of 21 submitted on a petition that was filed in Hood River County.

Haack said the local elections office followed state protocol regarding petitions that does not allow citizens to provide proof that a signature in question was theirs. She said signatures selected in two random samplings were compared against voter registration cards. And, if the writing didn’t match the card, then the signature was rejected.

Two hundred and fifty-four signatures were rejected during the samplings of 3,033 signatures statewide.

Haack said the law allows citizens to be contacted and asked to verify a questionable signature only on an election ballot.