Voters will know by Sept. 1 whether or not they will have a say in the passage of the so-called “everything but marriage” act passed by the Legislature earlier this year.

    State Elections Director Nick Handy predicted Wednesday that the signature check for Referendum 71, which aims to put the issue on the November general election ballot, would soon be complete.

    “Judging by the rate that signature checkers have been reviewing the R-71 signatures, we expect the signature checking process will be completed by September 1, and possibly even the day before then,” Handy said in a release. “Once the signature check process is finished, we will announce whether Referendum 71 has enough valid signatures to be placed on this November’s statewide ballot.”

    The measure grants domestic partnership rights to same sex and elderly couples.

    As of Wednesday afternoon, signature checkers had reviewed 117,069 signatures. Of that total, 103,198 have been approved and 13,871 have been rejected for one reason or another, according to a release.

    The R-71 sponsors, Protect Marriage Washington, need 120,577 valid Washington voter signatures for the referendum to be placed on the November ballot. The signature error rate currently is 11.85 percent, according to the release. The overall rejection rate must not exceed 12.4 percent for R-71 to go on the ballot.

    In a prepared statement, Handy said he and other state officials refuse to predict at this point whether the referendum will have enough valid signatures to go before Washington voters this fall.

     “We have said all along that this signature count will be too close to call, and that is still the case,” Handy said. “We’re not going to announce whether Referendum 71 qualifies or not until all of the signatures are reviewed.”

    The Office of Secretary of State is providing online daily updates about the Referendum 71 signature checking process on its Web site, which can be found at www.secstate.wa.gov.