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Florida Anti-Gay Amendment In Trouble
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: January 14, 2008 - 5:00 pm ET
(Miami, Florida) Backers of a proposed amendment
to bar same-sex marriage in Florida are scrambling to find 20,000 signatures to
get the measure on November's ballot after the Secretary of State announced
Monday that a counting mistake put them well short of the required 611,000 signatures
needed.
Last month the Secretary of State's office said
that Florida4Marriage collected 612,192 names, a thousand more than was
required.
Then questions arose about the state's electronic
voter system and it was determined the system was miscounting petition
signatures. Petition drives must submit signatures to counties which then
verify, tabulate and send the totals electronically to Tallahassee.
Secretary of State Kurt Browning ordered
counties to retabulate the results and send the results using paper forms to his
office.
Monday Browning announced there had been a
massive error in Dade County.
Browning, said the new
count showed that election officials in Miami-Dade had ''double-counted'' some
27,000 paper petitions.
With two weeks until the deadline for submitting
signatures it is unclear if Florida4Marriage will be able to make up the 20,000
name shortfall.
The amendment says, "Inasmuch as marriage is
the legal union of only one man and one woman, no other legal union that is
treated as marriage or the substantial equivalent thereof shall be valid or
recognized."
Florida4Marriage attempted to have the measure
placed on the 2006 ballot but fell short of the required number of signatures.
Under Florida law Florida4Marriage, was allowed to continue to add names to the
petition in a bid to get it on the 2008 ballot.
Last year it was discovered that the state GOP
was bankrolling Florida4Marriage. (story)
An investigation by the St. Petersburg Times into
funding for the Florida4Marriage has found that of the $193,000 that had been
raised by the group $150,000 came from a single donor - the Florida Republican
Party.
Opponents of the amendment say it could be used
to cancel domestic partner benefits throughout the state, for both gay and
straight couples.
Joining LGBT rights groups in fighting the
proposal is a straight ally, Florida Red & Blue.
The organization boasts both Democrats and
Republicans among its members. It amassed more than $1 million to battle
the proposed amendment in its first 60 days.
Florida Red and Blue spokesperson Stephen Gaskill
said if passed by voters the amendment would nullify partnership laws in Broward
County, Miami Beach, Key West and West Palm Beach that allow both same- and
opposite-sex couples to receive hospital visitation rights and health insurance
benefits.
Even if Florida4Marriage manages to make up the
shortfall in signatures passing a constitutional amendment in Florida has a
higher bar than in most states. It must be approved by 60 percent of
voters.
©365Gay.com 2008
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