SALEM, Ore. -- An effort to suspend Oregon's new domestic partnership law has failed.

Oregon's Secretary of State's Office made the announcement Monday, after election officials tallied the number of signatures gathered on a petition aimed at suspending the initiative.

John Bergmann, left, and Gary Hughes, both of Sacramento, Calif., hug outside the Multnomah County office building. (AP Photo)

Opponents of the law fell 116 signatures short of the required 55,179. Their goal was to give Oregonians a chance to vote on it as a referendum on the November, 2008 ballot.

Following its legislative passage, Governor Kulongoski signed the domestic partnership law in May. Under the initiative, same-sex couples will be legally recognized as domestic partners and receive various rights and responsibilities including the right to speak for their partner in medical and legal situations.

"I am thrilled and relieved," said Kelly Burke, who’s been in a relationship with her partner, Dolores Doyle, for almost 20 years.

Burke said the domestic partnership law could have helped her family last year, when Doyle underwent chemotherapy for breast cancer.

"We had an incident during her treatment when she needed emergency care," said Burke. "The person I contacted on the nurse's hotline would not speak to me, because I had no legal rights to speak for her (Doyle).

Marylin Shannon from the Defense of Marriage and Family, said the Secretary of State's Office told her their petition effort failed in part because of a double signature. Under Oregon's validation formula, that discrepancy cost them several hundred signatures.

Shannon says she's disappointed, but there's already talk of trying to repeal the law.

"If they go the initiative rout, we'll have to have to gather 82,000 signatures but we would have almost three times as long to gather them and now we have a base in every county, because we started from scratch," said Shannon.

Maura Roche with Basic Rights Oregon, says she's not worried about repeal.

"Their efforts are not moving forward because I think Oregonians support non-discrimination," said Roche.

On Thursday, the Secretary of State's Office should announce if a petition to suspend another gay rights law was successful. That law would ban discrimination based on sexual orientation.