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OLYMPIA, Wash. – New results released Wednesday afternoon show that Washington state's new "everything but marriage" law was passing by a wider margin than on election night.

Referendum 71 asked voters to approve or reject the final expansion to the state's domestic partnership law, which grants registered domestic partners additional state-granted rights currently given only to married couples.

The latest results show about 52 percent of voters approving the measure.

Sen. Ed Murray, a Democrat from Seattle who spearheaded the domestic partnership law, said he was pleased R-71 was leading, but the closeness of the race showed that "we still have a lot of work to do in having a conversation with the citizens of the state about the reality of gay and lesbian families."

The measure was failing in most of the state's 39 counties, except for 10 counties in the traditionally more liberal Puget Sound area, including King County, which includes Seattle and holds about a third of the state's voters.

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