Referendum 74 supporters claiming victory

November 7, 2012

After crunching numbers throughout the night, Washington United for Marriage (WUM) announced on Nov. 7 that Referendum 74 will be approved by voters.
“This is a clear win,” said WUM campaign manager Zach Silk. “We have run the numbers every which way, and we can now confidently say that we have won. This is an historic day for Washington, an historic day for our country and, most of all, for families across the state who have dreamed of this day and the wedding celebrations to come.”
“Washington voters sent a resounding message that nothing less than marriage is full equality for gay and lesbian couples. This victory rounds out a landslide sweep of all four marriage general election ballot measures,” said Human Rights Campaign (HRC) President Chad Griffin.
With 60 percent of the vote counted, R74 already has the support of 65 percent of King County and is performing well in key Eastern Washington counties.
As of Wednesday evening the measure led in statewide balloting 1,030,711-962,355 (51.7-48.3 percent).
WUM was built on a broad legislative effort that led to passage of the bipartisan marriage law in February. Nonetheless, essentially starting from scratch in June, the campaign built a $12.3 million war chest with more than 27,000 donors,
The most common donation? Twenty-five-dollars.
Ten-thousand, three-hour volunteer shifts for a total of 30,000 hours in direct voter outreach. Just in the last week, 100,000 doors were knocked and nearly 200,000 phone calls were logged on Monday and Tuesday.
HRC contributed more than $1.4 million to advance marriage equality in Washington. The organization also sent 600,000 emails to supporters of marriage equality and we’ve helped recruit nearly 1,000 volunteers and sent staff to work on the campaign.
“We made history in so many ways,” said Silk. “Our volunteers were engaged, fired up and delivered. There has never been a ballot campaign in Washington that had this kind of breath and depth, from field to fund-raising. With so much at stake, we challenged ourselves to do big things, and it made all the difference.”