‘Protect Marriage Illinois’ Coalition to Deliver Well Over 300,000 Signatures Today to Qualify Referendum for Ballot in November
by Illinois Family Institute
News Release, May 8, 2006
Petitions arrive at the Board of Elections in Springfield!
SPRINGFIELD, Illinois–Volunteers from across the state will be in the capital today to hand-deliver well over 300,000 signatures to the Board of Elections–to place a 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.”
If it survives a promised challenge by homosexual activists, the Protect Marriage Illinois (PMI) effort will be the first citizen advisory referendum to make it on the Illinois ballot in Illinois in 28 years. A total of 283,111 signatures of registered voters is required to get the referendum on the ballot, but PMI volunteers will deliver tens of thousands more than that.
The exact number of signatures to be submitted will be revealed after the petitions are delivered at 11:30 a.m. to the Illinois Board of Elections, at 1020 S. Spring St. in Springfield. At 12:30 p.m., the following speakers will be available to the media at the front entrance of the Board of Elections:
David Smith, PMI Project Director; Senior Policy Analyst, Illinois Family Institute Jack Roeser, Chairman, Family Taxpayers Network Naomi Attaway, PMI Coordinator, African-American Family Association Susan Jordan, Catholic Outreach Coordinator, Protect Marriage Illinois Rev. Joseph McAfee, Central United Community Church, Chicago
Peter LaBarbera, Executive Director of Illinois Family Institute, called the Protect Marriage Illinois campaign “a huge grassroots success that is historic in its proportions. The task of going to the ballot to call on our political leaders to protect traditional marriage has united people from every part of Illinois and from all races and backgrounds: African-American Pentecostals in Chicago, white Catholics in Peoria, evangelicals, Muslims, Republicans, Democrats and Independents. Truly, this is a ‘We the People’ movement.”
(LaBarbera will not be able to attend the PMI event in Springfield due to a personal trajedy in his family.)
Noting that a proposed binding constitutional marriage amendment has languished in Springfield for over two years, PMI Project Director David Smith said: “It’s a shame that we’ve had to resort to an Advisory Referendum to tell our legislators specifically to make protecting marriage a top priority. Nevertheless, it is humbling to see how many people and churches have invested their time, energy and resources to give us this unprecedented grassroots victory.”
The right of self government is quickly eroding away, as demonstrated in the battle to protect marriage. In Massachusetts, a 4-3 decision by the state’s highest court quashed a state law that preserve marriage as a union of one man and one woman and created a new “right to marry” based on unnatural sexual behavior.Can you believe that in Nebraska , a state constitutional marriage amendment that passed by 70 percent in November of 2000 was declared unconstitutional by a federal court; or that mayors in San Francisco and New Paltz, New York passed out “same-sex marriage” licenses–violating the respective laws of their states? Here in Illinois , House Speaker Michael Madigan has disregarded the people’s will by repeatedly blocking a popular Marriage Protection Amendment. If this amendment were ever allowed to come up for a vote by entire General Assembly, it would receive the needed three-fifths vote needed to pass a constitutional amendment. Since this constitutional amendment has been blocked in Springfield , grassroots groups started a petition drive to gather 283,111 signatures of registered voters to place an advisory referendum on the November ballot that calls on the General Assembly to pass a Marriage Protection Amendment. Thousands of concerned citizens are now circulating Protect Marriage Illinois petitions to get the necessary signatures.
Illinois citizens have the opportunity to assert their God-given right to take back their government and at the same time preserve marriage. Download a petition and get involved today!
David E. Smith, Project Director
Protect Marriage Illinois
“The best defense against usurpatory government is an assertive citizenry.”
–William F. Buckley, Jr.
