Oregon Public Broadcasting

The Washington state ballot measure to confer additional rights to gay couples and other domestic partners has a slight lead after the first round of statewide vote counting.

As of 12:30 Wednesday morning, fifty-one percent of Washington voters have approved Referendum 71.
Forty-nine percent have rejected the measure. KUOW's John Ryan reports from Seattle.

At the Approve 71 party on Seattle's Capitol Hill, the mood was victorious despite the narrow lead.

Anne Levinson is the campaign chair. She says the early results show that voters want to preserve the domestic-partnership rights that were signed into law earlier this year.

Anne Levinson: "What this was about was whether families who need these protections would have them taken away. And the longer-term discussion about civil marriage equality is on the future horizon. "

Reporters were not allowed inside the hotel ballroom in Everett where supporters of the group Protect Marriage Washington gathered on election night. The sound of God Bless America being sung did drift through the guarded and locked doors.

Organizers said they didn't want supporters to be harassed if their names were published in the media.

The U.S. Supreme Court recently prevented the names of the signers of the R-71 petition from being disclosed by state officials. The Court is still deciding whether to make a definitive ruling in that case.

Madeleine Fleet of Marysville volunteered for the campaign to reject R-71. She spoke with me while grabbing a cigarette outside the hotel.

Madeleine Fleet: "It's worth a fight to me because I don't want our traditional marriage taken away. I don't mind that they have other rights, but I believe they do have a lot of the rights that they claim they don't have already.

John Ryan: "They being?"

Madeleine Fleet: "The gay community."

Gay-rights campaigners raised more than $2 million. They outspent their opponents four to one.

Microsoft made the biggest contribution of $100,000 to defend Washington's "everything but marriage" law.

Most campaign contributions are strictly limited to prevent corruption of elected officials. But Doug Ellis of the Public Disclosure Commission says for ballot measures, the sky's the limit.

Doug Ellis: "Ballot measures don't vote, so it's hard to corrupt a ballot measure."

Voters in most of the Puget Sound region appeared to approve R-71. The gay-rights measure was winning by nearly a two-to-one margin in King County.

But voters in Pierce County joined with every county east of the Cascades and every county south of Olympia in rejecting R-71.

State officials estimate about half of all votes have been counted so far.