Bay City News Service
A South Bay taxpayers' group says it is preparing a massive petition drive to overturn the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors' decision to create a domestic partnership registry.
The Santa Clara County Taxpayers' Association, which opposes the registry that will allow same-sex partners to record their relationships with county government, has already opened an office in San Jose, said volunteer staff member Sandy Kohler.
The office will serve solely as a command center for a petition drive to stop the registry from becoming law, Kohler said.
SCCTA Director Pat Shrum told the board during a marathon public meeting Aug. 13 that she has "amassed a small army" to defeat the registry.
About 2,000 supporters and opponents converged on the County Government Center in San Jose. After hearing testimony from more than 180 people, the five-member board shortly after midnight voted unanimously to create the registry.
If the board passes the ordinance creating the registry a second time at next week's meeting, it will become law in 30 days unless Shrum's group can gather enough signatures on petitions opposing the registry within that amount of time.
Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters Dwight Beattie says that, if opponents gather 45,000 valid signatures within 30 days, the registry would be suspended until it can be put on a countywide ballot--most likely June 1998.
Kohler said the Taxpayers' Association is counting on evangelical Christian groups to help gather the signatures. "Pastors are calling in today and asking for petitions," she said.
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, August 21, 1996.
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