Dec 05, 2008  |  By: LOU CHIBBARO JR  | COMMENTS     

Opponents of same-sex marriage in Washington would likely have between one and two-and-a-half months to gather more than 21,000 petition signatures needed to place a voter referendum on the ballot to kill a gay marriage bill passed by the D.C. City Council.

Under the city’s election law, residents who seek to use the referendum process to overturn a gay marriage law — or any law passed by the Council — must also navigate a series of additional hurdles during that same time period before they can begin to collect signatures.

Among other things, a proposed referendum must be published in the D.C. Register, and 10 days must be set aside to allow opponents to challenge the referendum on legal grounds. More time would be expended to allow referendum opponents to challenge the validity of the petition signatures.

In addition to requiring signatures from 5 percent of the city’s registered voters, about 21,000 signatures, the law requires those signatures to be dispersed in such a way that 5 percent come from at least five of the city’s eight wards.

“It was done this way for a reason,” said Rudolph McGann, staff attorney for the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics, which oversees the referendum process.

McGann said the Council, which added the referendum and voter initiative provisions to the city’s election law in the late 1970s, did not want to make it too easy to use ballot measures to “second guess” its lawmaking authority.

Although the referendum process may be cumbersome, some local gay activists have expressed concern that anti-gay groups will unleash enormous resources to overcome all obstacles, with the goal of preventing gays from obtaining the right to marry in the nation’s capital.

A possible referendum to kill a same-sex marriage bill in Washington became the subject of much discussion among local activists during the past month after D.C. Council Member David Catania (I-At-Large) said he was strongly considering introducing a bill in January to legalize same-sex marriage.

The group D.C. For Marriage is sponsoring a community forum Dec. 11 to discuss whether the city should move forward next year on a gay marriage bill. The forum is set for 7 p.m. at the Human Rights Campaign’s Equality Center at 1640 Rhode Island Ave., N.W.

Among the questions expected to surface at the forum is whether D.C. voters would follow the path of voters in California, who on Nov. 4 approved Proposition 8, a referendum that banned gay marriage in that state.

D.C.’s referendum process is linked, in part, to Congress’s authority to review and overturn all laws enacted by the city government.

Under the city’s election law, the requirements for placing a referendum on the ballot, including the collection of petition signatures, must be completed between the time the D.C. mayor signs a bill approved by the Council and the time Congress completes its 30-legislative-day review of the bill.

Based on history, 30 legislative days — days in which Congress is in session and conducting official business — can take between 40 to 75 calendar days. However, the D.C. Council’s legislative services office has said that in recent years, the congressional review sometimes has been completed within one month.

The city’s election law, which was approved by Congress, says that if residents successfully fulfill the requirements for subjecting a D.C. law to a referendum before Congress completes its review of the law, Congress shall suspend its review and return the law to the Council until the referendum vote is held. The referendum process then requires the Board of Elections and Ethics to schedule a special election for a referendum on the law in question within 114 days.

If a regular, citywide election is scheduled to take place within 54 to 114 days after referendum backers meet all requirements for placing a referendum on the ballot, the election board must arrange to hold the referendum at the time of the regularly scheduled election.

If D.C. voters approve the referendum, the law is voided. If voters defeat the referendum, the law is sent back to Congress for the completion of the congressional review process.

At that time, Congress could invoke its own authority to overturn any D.C. law, including a gay marriage law. If Congress takes no action, the law goes into effect automatically at the completion of the review period.

McGann, the election board’s staff attorney, and fellow staff attorney Terri Stroud, said they could not confirm whether a D.C. gay marriage bill that survives the referendum process could also be subjected to repeal through the initiative process.

The two said that under the election law, an ...