Meridian Magazine:: Family Leader Network: Florida Marriage Amendment in Danger

Share the article on this page with a friend.
Click here.

Florida Marriage Amendment in Danger

Please pass this email on to all of your friends who live in Florida, because time is very short to get a state marriage protection amendment on the ballot.

Family Leader is working with Florida4Marriage.org to get a marriage protection amendment on the ballot. An unforeseen emergency has arisen, and we ask all the citizens in Florida who care about traditional marriage to step forward and help.

Florida4Marriage has been gathering signatures to put a marriage protection amendment on the ballot for some time. With a February 1 deadline looming and everyone assuming enough signatures had been gathered, the Division of Elections suddenly ordered an “audit” and announced that the Florida Marriage Protection Amendment fell short by 30,000 petitions. This allows only two weeks to gather the additional signatures to get a marriage protection amendment on the ballot.

Please step forward and make a difference in Florida.

Leaders of Florida4Marriage.org declared a state of "constitutional emergency" Tuesday when they learned from Division of Elections officials that due to an "audit" ordered by the Division, the Florida Marriage Protection Amendment fell short by some 30,000 petitions. The state constitutional amendment seeks to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman and would prohibit polygamy, group marriage, and same sex marriages in Florida.

According to state officials, only 589,020 petitions were officially certified after the unprecedented audit, leaving the petition effort just under 22,000 short of the needed 611,009 needed to be certified for the ballot in 2008. Florida4Marriage.org State Chairman John Stemberger said, "Right now, we are not interested in whose fault this is. We just want to finish the job — and finish it immediately."

Amendment leaders are calling upon national, state and local pro-family leaders to alert Floridians to the crisis and to immediately pull out all stops to collect new petitions over the next two weeks. Stemberger said all petitions must be physically mailed or hand delivered into the state headquarters located at 4853 S. Orange Avenue, Orlando FL 32806, before close of business on Tuesday, January 29, 2008 (Presidential Primary Election Day).

Under a new law, petitions can no longer be delivered to local county supervisors of elections by individual citizens. Petitions can only be received from the official sponsoring committee of the amendment.

# # #

ACTION STEPS:

Sign the Petition and find new friends, neighbors and family who have not signed the petition. Petitions can be downloaded in PDF format HERE:
Collect Petitions at Early Voting Sites: Volunteer to collect petitions outside of early voting sites which opened today. Click HERE office and find early voting sites in your county. Make sure you s to look up your county Supervisor Electionstand 100 feet away from the polling place to meet the legal requirement.