MONTANA PETITION DRIVE UNDERWAY: From the Washington Times

The first of six petition drives to block same-sex "marriage" with state constitutional amendments ends this week in Montana.

If at least 41,020 valid signatures are turned in tomorrow, Montana voters will have a chance to decide in November whether to define marriage as "the union of one man and one woman" in their state's constitution.

The amendment, if passed, will prohibit courts from finding a "right to marry" for homosexuals, as has happened in Massachusetts. ...

Similar petition drives are under way in Arkansas, Oregon, Michigan, North Dakota and Ohio. The number of signatures needed varies by state because of different laws regarding how a measure gets on a ballot. ...

Homosexual rights groups said petition drives in Michigan, Oregon and Ohio are most likely to fail. ...

Of the six petition drives, Arkansas' appears to be in the best position.

More than 108,000 signatures have been collected, and the goal is 160,000 signatures--"double what we need," said Chris Stewart, executive director of the Arkansas Marriage Amendment Committee in Little Rock. ...

Many homosexual rights activists, including Mr. Kosofsky, said the petition drives are blatant political acts designed to attract voters in swing states to re-elect President Bush.

The Bush administration is "orchestrating" the drives to "distract all Democrats from every single issue that Republicans are on the defensive on, even Iraq," Mr. Kosofsky said. "Certain things don't belong on a ballot--my right to a job, my right to a family. Fundamental human rights do not belong on a ballot." ...

Montanans for Families and Fairness, an umbrella group for opponents of the amendment, recently filed a complaint against a church in East Helena, Mont., for not registering as an "incidental political committee" when it hosted a TV broadcast in support of the amendment. The state is investigating the complaint.

Marriage-amendment battles are assured in at least seven other states: Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Utah have marriage amendments on their November ballots, while Missourians will go to polls on the issue Aug. 3. Louisiana has an amendment on its Sept. 18 ballot.

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posted by Eve at 11:56 PM VOTE

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