June 28, 2004
Marriage Opponents 'Upbeat' As Supporters Allege Petition Irregularities
Plus, A Lawsuit Against Benton County
With an end-of-week petition signature deadline on he horizon, it's probably time to check in on the efforts to amend the Oregon Constitution to outlaw same-sex marriage.
Last Friday, The Oregonian reported that initiative backers were "upbeat" about their prospects, predicting they will turn in 130,000 signatures. To qualify for the ballot, the proposal muct obtain 100,840 valid signatures.
But [Tim Nashif, political director of the Defense of Marriage Coalition] didn't want to overstate the group's chances, because the state is scrutinizing each petition sheet so closely for signing and dating errors. Recent enforcement of signing and dating requirements has cost sponsors of other initiatives perhaps thousands of signatures.
Coalition volunteers, he said, are screening petitions to weed out questionable sheets. Nashif said he does not necessarily agree with all of the state's interpretations, but, "We have a team checking for what we know are the secretary of state's rules."
That same article also forewarned of possible challenges to the initiative effort from supporters of same-sex marriage:
Even so, Basic Rights Oregon, a gay-rights organization that opposes the proposed amendment, is monitoring signature gathering, in part by sending volunteers to churches to observe petition practices, said Rebekah Kassell, the group's communications director.
Indeed, according to the Associated Press this afternoon, those monitoring efforts have resulted in complaints being filed with the State Elections Division:
According to the complaints, volunteers at churches in Lowell and Beaver Creek told food pantry patrons that they needed to sign a petition banning gay marriage if they were registered voters.
Basic Rights Oregon also alleges that signature collectors passed petition sheets along church pews or left them unattended in church lobbies without witnessing the voters' signatures in person. And the group says volunteers in Tualatin circulated a petition on May 1 -- more than a week before they could officially begin collecting signatures.
Nasif denies the allegations, pointing out that the Coalition distributed specific information regarding signature-gathering procedures. Meanwhile, the Elections Division says that any valid criminal violations would be prosecued, and civil violations "would cause the signatures to be declared invalid."
Further meanwhile -- turnabout being fair play and all -- an opposite-sex couple filed suit against Benton County over their policy of denying marriage licenses to all couples until and unless the question of same-sex marriage's legality is settled.
Comments (1)
Keith on 28 Jun 2004
That anyone can feel 'upbeat' when it comes to denying fellow Oregonians the same rights that they themselves have, is really disturbing. Certainly they have a perspective -- and they're willing to fight for it -- but it seems a little humility would necessarily be in order.