Illinois history made by 11,581 volunteers
By The Family Taxpayers Network
Last week, petitions were filed with the Illinois State Board of Elections in Springfield, Illinois, to put an advisory referendum on the November ballot asking if the General Assembly should amend the Illinois Constitution to declare that “marriage between a man and a woman is the only legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this State.”
Almost 65,000 sheets of paper containing 345,199 signatures, that is. That feat was pulled off by thousands of committed volunteers who were activated by Protect Marriage Illinois, Illinois Family Institute, and the Family Taxpayers Network.
No matter what the media says tomorrow, today belongs to the people who got the job done. They did it with pages that would contain a maximum of only seven signatures. And they did what hasn’t been done in Illinois in 28 years.
Jack Roeser and the Family Taxpayers Network extends hearty congratulations to the volunteers on their incredible accomplishment.
Here are the final petition numbers:
Minimum signatures required: 283,111
Signatures collected: 421,801
Signatures filed: 345,199
Some additional statistics help illustrate the level of energy generated across the state for the cause of defending traditional marriage.
- 11,581 volunteers circulated the Protect Marriage Illinois petitions.
- 2,635 church congregations circulated petitions.
- 329,890 outreach calls were made to registered voters.
- Over 34,000 petition packets were mailed to volunteers.
- More than 35,000 people downloaded the petition from the Protect Marriage Illinois website.
- 1,585 petition packets were mailed to churches throughout Illinois.
- 164 regional volunteer coordinators were put into place across the state.
- Residents of all 102 Illinois counties signed the petition.
- The largest petition drive event was held in a church on the southside of Chicago.
- More than 1/3 of the petition signers represent minority communities.
- Two other citizen led initiatives were attempted this election cycle, but those failed to generate the same momentum as did the Protect Marriage effort.
