Monday, July 03, 2006

Circulators Outline Challenge to Protect Marriage Petitions

In an email received over the weekend, David Smith, Project Director of the Protect Marriage advisory referendum initiative outline the status of petition drive.

The petitions were filed in a timely manner.

Then, the State Board of Elections sent samples to each election jurisdiction for verification purposes. The results, as Smith put it,

…the random sample signature verification conducted by the election authorities… determined that the petition submitted projects to have 258,869 valid signatures.

This number is approximately 91.4% of the number which would be required to have the question placed on the ballot at the November, 2006 general election, as we all know by now to be 283,111. We needed to reach 95%.
That sounds like bad news. And it certainly would be better had a couple more percentage points of the signatures passed muster of the county clerks and election commissioners.

But, the
good news in that the margin by which we fell short is small – meaning we have only 3.6% to make up (about 11,000 signatures). We are fairly confident that there are enough signatures that can be rehabilitated to make up this difference especially if you factor in the mistakes that were observed during the Random Sampling process.
Attached to the email was the summary report prepared by the State Board of Elections. It notes that, of signatures gathered in Chicago, less than 37% were considered valid.

Libertarian Party scuttlebutt has it that one should expect about 50% of Chicago signatures to be invalid, so 37% is far below that guideline. Of course, Chicago is known to be the most “gay friendly” part of Illinois.

In McHenry County, 86.8% of the signatures were considered valid. A sample of almost 10% or 735 signatures were sent to the McHenry County Clerk’s office for verification.

Here are the findings on the State Board of Elections report:
91.8% valid (672)
Of those considered invalid,
7.24% or 53 were unregistered the signature did not match the clerk’s records in 3 cases

in 4 cases, either the signature or the address could not be read.
What you can do, according to Smith:
Keep praying – When Peter (LaBarbera) and I were talking to Mike Lavelle (our attorney) about these results this afternoon, Mike recognized the fact that we’ve got some good prayer warriors (he was very encouraged by the results) – so don’t stop now – let’s keep tugging on our Heavenly Father’s robe asking Him for His continued blessing.
Lavelle used to head of the Chicago Election Commission. He is a conservative Democrat who won the case for State Rep. Penny Pullen in which the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that the voter's intention counted. Most readers will know that as the "hanging chad" case.

Also at McHenry County Blog, you may find Paul Green's analysis of this spring's voter turnout and a full copy of 8th congressional district "Moderate Party" candidate Bill Scheurer's press release about his suit against various Democrats.

14 comments:

Anonymous,  3:57 PM  

I see this as bad news for Topinka on two fronts.

This petition was the only motivation for some conservatives to go to the polls this November. Unlike the Roeser & Roeser crowd (more like the few), most conservatives reject their "rule or ruin" philosophy and are prepared to go with Topinka, reluctantly, over Blagojevich, assuming they bother to vote.

On a second front, since the Roeser & Roeser Few have never made a mistake in their lives, and it is ALWAYS somebody else's fault when they lose, they will blame Topinka for their own failure to get the signatures they needed. Expect more pig sty antics from Carpentersville.

Anonymous,  4:01 PM  

I hope they're planning a petition drive to outlaw the illegal use of Viagra among currently unmarried right-wing radio a-holes. The typical thrice married, self-proclaimed moralists are a bigger danger to the "sanctity" of marriage than any gay couple I know.

Anonymous,  4:03 PM  

Its a bit sickening how these guys slop on the religious imagery whey they are in trouble . . . . or want money.

I do think that God hears the prayers of homosexuals, too. I'm also confident that many gays and lesbians live far more "christian" lives than many PMI supporters. Let's start with the ones that adopt orphans.

Jeff Trigg 4:24 PM  

They needed 283,000 valid signatures and turned in 350,000 raw signatures, roughly. That means they needed about 81% of what they turned in to be valid. That is really hard to get unless you go door to door with registered voter lists to get the vast majority. 65-70% is good and above 70% is lucky. I doubt they have 80% valid. They are at least 10,000 signatures short.

I see Republicans have challenged the Constitution Party and the Independence Party. No Green challenge yet, but they have almost an hour.

Jeff Trigg 4:41 PM  

And yes, the Democrats have now challenged the Greens 39,000 signatures. They only need 64% to be valid so they should have a good shot at beating the anti-democracy Democrats.

Anonymous,  4:54 PM  

Yee of little faith, Jeffery. Where there is a will, there is a way.

Jeff Trigg 5:00 PM  

They needed the will a few months ago BEFORE they turned in the signatures, because that is the only way. :)

Ironically, Randy Stufflebeam needed another 25,000 signatures to be on the ballot also. Too bad the two couldn't work together better and they both would've been on the ballot.

Anonymous,  5:05 PM  

You people make me sick! We have overwhelming support of voters across the US, but you smug know-it-alls just consider our opinion unworthy and unchristian.

You guys don't like democracy, except when it goes your way. You will not have any voter support for your arrogant snotty attitudes in November.

Yup, we're all a bunch of ignorant bores, but we vote and we will have our day.

Now go back to your c-jerk and pretend we don't matter.

Jeff Trigg 5:14 PM  

Who are you talking to and about?

Anonymous,  10:55 PM  

Those who call Mike Lavelle a Conseratvie Dem, may learn the hard way really soon :)

Anonymous,  11:11 PM  

These people are asking for the Lord's Blessing to put a hate-filled, intolerance-based question on our democratic (little d) ballot in the fall.

They ought to be asking for the Lord's forgiveness for ignoring Christ's teachings of tolerance, openness and acceptance.

This call to prayer borders on blasphemy.

Anonymous,  12:43 AM  

Overwhelming support? Then it should be a no brainer to get this on the ballot...codify it in a vote.

Anonymous,  9:02 PM  

If I put on my Machiavelli hat, I would say that failing to qualify for the ballot is the best thing that could have happened to the cultural warriors who support this anti-gay initiative.

Recent polls show that the margin opposing gay marriage is shrinking; and if you add the numbers of people who support gay marriage with the number supporting civil unions for gays, you consistently get a majority. The initiative would have lost in this state, imo, and that would have sunk the Stop Gay Marriage crowd.

The best they could hope for is creating an activity that energizes their base (such as collecting signatures for the initiative), and then claiming victim status when they fail.

Sadly, people who truly support this initiative were betrayed by their leaders. It's absolute craziness to file with less than the double the number of signatures required. Equally pathetic, though, will be the claim of victimhood by the leaders of this effort.

Anonymous,  6:02 PM  

I understand Fair Illinois found 140,000 bad signatures, so Illinois Family's 'challenge' will truly require divine intervention. Fair Illinois had hundreds of volunteers working at several locations--plenty of them straight--checking every signature individually. I think normal, mainstream people of faith are starting to wise up to these crackpots. And as far as Topinka is concerned, Republicans should be happy they picked a moderate--Blago is starting to implode and she at least represents a tolerable social agenda for moderate Republicans who would never have voted for Oberweis.

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