Short of signatures and short of time, too

State elections officials say two high-profile ballot initiatives are short of the 611,009 verified voter signatures needed to get on the ballot with about two-and-a-half weeks to go. The big surprise: Florida For Marriage Protection, the group pushing a ban on same-sex marriages, was about 22,000 signatures short with a total of 589,020 Monday, even though the group called a news conference last month, claiming it had reached the signature target.

What happened? Sterling Ivey, spokesman for the Division of Elections, cited a discrepancy in the Miami-Dade elections office, where more than 20,000 duplicate signatures received in 2006 were counted twice. Ivey's boss, Secretary of State Kurt Browning, last week junked that pre-2007 automated counting method in favor of a new  requirement for paper reporting, precisely because of concerns about unreliable county numbers.

In the second case, Florida Hometown Democracy had 501,000 signatures as of Monday, putting it about 110,000 signatures short of the mark. The deadline for submission of signatures is Feb. 1.   

Comments

Oh, those poor Hate Mongers... it just breaks my heart.

[Karma]

I'll get you everytime.

I agree, 5:15. Those Hometown Democracy folks really hate the free enterprise system.

my bet is the marriage protection droids cant find sufficient numbers who can SIGN their names!!

[Kyle]

I would vote against it anyways. The thinking that gay people can be "cured" is over. Why not let them experience marriage, (the good and bad aspects) just like the rest of us? It wouldn't bother me one bit.

[jj]

Loving relationships are hard enough to find in life. I say let folks make their own choices about love and committment. Nobody gets hurt.

Interestin' developments.

[Matt]

As a gay man, it brightens my day to read such positive comments from the public. It's refreshing to see that people are keeping an open mind and renews my faith somewhat in humanity.

"...a discrepancy in the Miami-Dade elections office"

In 2000 and 2004, they called people “left-wing loonies” for saying our Electronic Corporate Appointment System… err… Electronic Voting System could be flawed, or even rigged.

Hmmmmm….

[Joe]

The time the scumbag religious bigots were finally put in their place has arrived. Just because a person is born gay doesn`t mean they should face intolerance and discrimination because of a few evangelical idiots.

I'm glad to see that there are, hopefully, not an overwhelming majority of people who buy into the bigotry that group is trying to pass off.

I understand the idea that marriage should be sacred, religious, etc., but I don't see people trying to ban atheists from marriage. So as long as that can happen, the argument of religion holds no weight. F

Of course, they would not want to leave marriage up to churches either because some churches would allow gays to marry. So they try and use the legal system, illegally, to further their homophobia.

Considering the political climate in this state, I was a bit scared, so this is welcome news. I'm sure we'll see a push in the next two weeks. Go ahead, come to my door.

As a gay person of faith, I shall pray that they don't reach this goal and the bevy of newspaper columns saying it isn't necessary will put the kibosh on this.

As a gay person of faith who supports diversity, growth management, a high-fiber diet, low property taxes and returning to a gold-based monetary system...well, I'm confused.

Biggots have no place in our society! I would support the rights of our Gay Community over a biggot any day!

Have, divisiveness and fearmongering will always lose.

Stermberger - get a life!

gov't shouldn't be involved in marriage anyway - why should government decide who gets a slip of paper, why should government decide who can combine assets, etc. - any two people should be able to enter into a contract, labeled marriage or not - get government out of it - it's offensive to the idea of liberty - hope it doesn't make the ballot

hometown democracy is offensive to representative democracy - hope it doesn't make the ballot

I agree with all of you. Why worry about the economy, immigration, war, education, gas prices, crime rates, and the future of this great nation. As long as homertesticles and two-can-chews can get married, all is well with the world.

721-

if you want to be logical, one could say you are a bigot!

One point being missed here is that Stemberger's organization missed the fact there were over 20,000 double counts of petitions they submitted in Miami-Dade.
A good organization enters each petition into a database, both for future contact and for verification, and also just to keep count of how many had been submitted. John is not competent enough to handle the key details such as this, perhaps he was too busy dumping Thompson for Huckabee.

And as you look for blame, which you will soon, and publicly with crying and gnashing of teeth and threat of legal action and declaring "Constitutional Emergency"...The fault, dear Stemberger, lies not in the stars....

There are really only three reasons that this “discrepancy” occurred.

1. Most Florida politicians are owned by the development industry.
2. Gay Marriage is the “abortion” wedge issue of the New Millennium, and far too valuable as a campaign tool to resolve.
3. Both would have passed with huge support.

[ed]

disappointed the florida hometown democracy might not make the ballot-it seems like many people complain that florida is being OVER-DEVELOPED so why are they NOT SIGNING THE PETITION?? WHEN WE ARE OUT OF WATER THEN THEY'LL SAY "HOW DID THIS HAPPEN" & SOME NUT WILL SAY "ITS THE FREE ENTERPRISE SYSTEM"-OH YEAH!!!!

How funny that the immature remarks seem to come out on these boards in particular. Rather telling.

too bad so sad ed - hometown was a joke, and they'd probably be making deadlines and signatures if they weren't your typical lazy liberal hippie crowd that does a lot of shrieking, but never gets off their azzes to actually accomplish much

[Will]

4:32

Watch it, if hometown doesnt end up on the 2008 ballot, those morons will end up on the 2010 ballot for sure. Its going to be an expensive fight to kill it then. But hopefully the other amendment will be on the 2010 ballot as well, which would override hometown enviro-cracy.