Sponsors of Referendum 71, which would put the state domestic-partnership bill up to a vote, recently told the Secretary of State's office that they have about 75,000 signatures on hand. The petitioners need 120,577 valid signatures by July 25 to make the November ballot. The office's elections division recommends submitting a total of about 150,000 signatures to cover invalid or duplicate signatures. The office reports that R-71 sponsors, run by bigots Gary Randall and Larry Stickney, "have indicated they are scrambling" to meet the deadline in 10 days.

Meanwhile, it appears the one of two organizations working on R-71 don't have their finances in order. Lurleen at Pam's House Blend says that a Public Disclosure Commission employee contacted Randall to say his expenditure report for Faith and Freedom PAC was overdue. "By law, the deadline was July 10th," Lurleen says. "Since then, F&F PAC has filed two more contribution reports, but still no expenditure report."