Another one bites the dust... for now.

The Florida Division of Elections has confirmed that backers of a proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage failed to get enough signatures to have the issue placed on the November ballot.

The deadline for turning in signatures was 5pm ET Wednesday. 

Wednesday evening 365Gay.com reported that initial results showed that the initiative was likely to fail.

Florida4marriage turned in 455,730 signatures, well short of the 611,009 required the state confirmed Thursday morning.
The organization rushed to get the petitions in on time and used three planes to deliver the signature sheets to couriers, who then drove the signed petitions to various counties to be counted.

"The sheer volume of communicating with three-quarters of a million people is quite an undertaking, much more than I expected," said Orlando lawyer John Stemberger, chairman of Florida4marriage.

Stemberger said, however, that the fight is only delayed and not over. He said that the group will continue to collect names and resubmit the petitions for to have the amendment placed on the 2008 ballot.

Florida law allows petitions to be kept for four years.

If approved by voters the amendment would define marriage as "the legal union of only one man and one woman as husband and wife," and would bar the state from recognizing any other arrangement. That would block civil unions and, according to opponents could nullify domestic partner benefits and contracts entered into by same-sex couples.

"I think they severely underestimated how fair-minded Floridians are," said Equality Florida spokesperson Brian Winfield.

"The failure of this initiative is not only a victory for fair-minded Floridians but for the constitution, which is intended to protect citizens, not to discriminate against them," he said.

Florida4marriage was heavily funded. The Florida Republican Party was its biggest sponsor.

Last month an investigation by the St. Petersburg Times into funding for  Florida4Marriage has found that of the $193,000 that has been raised by the group - $150,000 came from a single donor - the Florida Republican Party.

Yet Gov. Jeb Bush, the titular head of the party, publicly said in 2004 that he is opposed to an amendment and a spokesperson for the Governor said Bush was not aware of the donation. Bush said earlier this week, however, that if the group failed to get enough signatures to put the issue to voters he would look at ways of strengthening the state's Defense of Marriage Act which already prevents gay couples from marrying.

via: 365gay.com

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 02, 2006 at 2:34 PM. Want to discuss? Leave a comment below.