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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Measure Would Extend Marriage Waiting Period

Hunter T. George Associated Press

So the love of your life wants to get married - and soon.

Current law requires a three-day waiting period to get a marriage license, but a proposed initiative to the Legislature, filed Wednesday, would extend the wait to 60 days.

Moreover, it would require you and your spouse-to-be to complete eight hours of classes on commitment, parenting and how to resolve disputes. And in case your marriage isn’t working out, the measure also would require a 60-day cooling off period and more classes once a spouse files for divorce.

The initiative’s sponsor, Bill Harrington of Tacoma, says his proposal is designed to boost family values by giving people time to think about the significance of starting or ending a marriage.

He said it’s more of a fiscal issue than anything else because keeping families together would curb government costs in areas such as welfare.

“We’re not trying to intervene in people’s lives, telling them what to do and what not to do,” Harrington, who serves on the U.S. Commission on Child and Family Welfare, said after signing papers in the office of the Secretary of State.

Supporters must gather the signatures of about 181,667 registered voters by Jan. 3, 1997, in order to force the Legislature to consider the proposal next year. If signature gatherers are successful, lawmakers would have three options:

Pass the proposal into law.

Do nothing and let the initiative go to the ballot for voters to decide.

Approve an alternative version that would go to the ballot with the original proposal.

Several marriage experts, including University of Washington sociologist and author Pepper Schwartz, questioned the merit of requiring classes, particularly since churches and other groups may push different values.

“The mass application of this, I think, could offend people on both sides of the line,” Schwartz said, describing the proposal as a “knee-jerk reaction” to the concern over family values.

“For counseling to be effective, people need to want to be there,” added Bonnie Nielsen, a psychiatric nurse practitioner with an Olympia counseling firm.