Last Friday, the Secretary of State’s office reported that the first batch of signatures they examined for anti-gay measure R-71 was clean as a whistle, a good start toward getting the measure on the ballot. Then all this week, it reported high failure rates for the petitions, making it look like the measure wouldn’t make it. Now, late this afternoon, it lets us know that many of those failures have been switched to successes, per the work of a “Master Checker,” who determines whether the signatures have been wrongly rejected. (For example, sometimes the state is able to verify a previously unverifiable signature by contacting the county.) Now, R-71’s error rate is down to 11.63%, which could put it on pace to make the ballot. (The highest error rate it can have while still making the ballot is 12.42%, though its rate of duplicate signatures will continue to go up as the count continues.) I know you’re just doing your job, Secretary of State, but, as I’m sure a lot of disappointed little girls would tell you, don’t promise a pony if you can’t deliver one.