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.”

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.

Dear Friends of Marriage,

Yesterday we received word that United States District Court Judge Elaine B. Bucklo (a Clinton appointee) had ruled against our complaint that the Illinois election code for advisory referenda (such as the Protect Marriage Illinois referendum) is unconstitutionally burdensome to Illinois citizens–thus infringing on their right to petition their government.

We think Judge’ Bucklo’s decision was rushed and shallow. So, with the help of our good friends at the Alliance Defense Fund, we are appealing it. Our appeal was filed today.

Judge Bucklo disregarded our First Amendment claims and therefore did not agree with our contention that the referendum rules as applied by the State Board of Election (SBE) were unfair and unreasonable. Basically, she acquiesced to a very low standard when it comes to the state upholding citizens’ rights to petition their government. The advisory referendum rules are incredibly arcane and complicated: eight Illinois cities are their own election jurisdiction (treated separately from Illinois’ 102 counties), which led to thousands of PMI signatures being disqualified or not submitted to the SBE.

Read more…

Many people have asked: why is the Left in Illinois so afraid of a non-binding referendum asking citizens to vote YES or NO on this question: “To secure and preserve the benefits of marriage for our society and for future generations of children, a marriage between a man and a woman is the only legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this state.”

by David E. Smith, PMI Project Director

Uncovered: Many Errors by Election Clerks

Protect Marriage Illinois and the Illinois Family Institute recently filed a complaint in Federal Court to protect the rights of Illinois citizens who have, in good faith, petitioned their government for a Marriage Protection Referendum to be placed on the Illinois General Election ballot on November 7, 2006.

Background
For the past three weeks PMI, IFI and dozens of good hearted volunteers have been analyzing thousands of signatures — signatures that were “invalidated” by various Illinois Election Authorities (Boards of Election in Chicago, Cook, DuPage, Stark and others) in a random sample of PMI’s 347,000 signatures, which were turned into the State Board of Elections (SBE) on May 8, 2006.

(Click HERE for more information on the random sample process.)

During our analysis, we found many, many errors, especially in Chicago and Cook County (about a 10 percent error rate in their findings). Some of the mistakes were blatant. Here are some examples:

· A woman who was registered to vote as “Deidra” signed our marriage petition, but her signature was disqualified because she signed as “Dee.”

· The signature of one woman who signed as “Sue” was disqualified because on her voter registration certificate she signed as “Susan.”

· Many citizens who printed their names on the petition were “invalidated” because their printed names didn’t match their voter registration signatures. (Our lawyers tell us that printing one’s name is acceptable.)

· One woman, probably in the rush to sign our petition, omitted the last digit of the street number of her home address. She is a registered voter, but because of that single missing digit, her name was disqualified by election officials.

· Possibly the worst part of all this is the fact that the SBE had to “invalidate” 10,788 of our signatures because they were considered “out of jurisdiction.” What does that mean? Simply put, if you live in the City of Chicago but signed on a petition that contained mostly suburban Cook County signatures, your signature (as of now) does not count.

Now, do not get mad at the SBE, they are only following the draconian rules set forth by the Illinois General Assembly. So if you want to get mad at someone, get mad at Springfield lawmakers who set up these ludicrous requirements — including the unjustifiably high signature requirement for non-binding questions of public policy, a number more than eleven times the amount required of those seeking statewide office.

The vast majority of Illinois citizens recognize that these are blatant and excessive violations of our right to petition our government. These rules effectively discourage citizen involvement.

Our legal team, led by Mike Lavelle (former chairman of the Illinois State Board of Election) and attorneys from the Alliance Defense Fund, have a strong case showing that not only enough good signatures were invalidated, but that the irrational rules that citizens are required to adhere to are so severe, it effectively impairs the citizen’s ability to exercise their First Amendment Right to petition the government for redress of grievance.

Legal Battle Intensifies - You Can Help!
As you can see, we are now in the midst of the legal effort to secure all of our hard work. With each passing day, we grow more confident that we will succeed and qualify for the ballot in November. So please keep praying and please continue financially supporting our work to defend marriage in Illinois.

The other side is very well funded. In fact, some political leaders in Chicago recently “rallied together to donate $15,000″ to fund our oppositions’ efforts to derail us (read more HERE), and the Democratic National Committee gave $10,000 to opponents of PMI (read more HERE).

Of course our opponents also include activists affiliated with the ACLU, Gay Liberation Network, NOW and the People for the American Way — and they are all working overtime to block our Marriage Protection Referendum from getting on the ballot in November. Why? Because they know that Illinois voters will vote by an overwhelming margin in support of preserving the legal definition of marriage as one man and one woman!!!

(To see a complete list of our opponents’ supporters, click HERE.)

Please help us fund our legal defense and become an important part of strengthening families and communities throughout Illinois!

Our legal defense costs are mounting fast — and we are only in the middle of this legal battle. It will cost tens of thousands of dollars, but it is necessary to help stop the highly-organized and well-financed “Fair Illinois” coalition that is desperate to stop Illinois voters from having the opportunity to vote “YES” for the Referendum!

If you believe in keeping marriage from being radically redefined by the ACLU and its pro-homosexual, pro-polyamorous allies, please send your most generous contribution to Protect Marriage Illinois today. We are supported by voluntary donations from individuals like you across the state of Illinois. Click HERE to give online!

We need and greatly appreciate your financial help. Some can give $1,000 to $5,000 — others can give $100 to $500 — but even just $25 or $10 is greatly appreciate!! Anything you can do to help defend marriage will help us support, protect and strengthen Illinois families. Please mail your donation today to:

Protect Marriage Illinois
P.O. Box 419
Wheaton, Illinois 60189

You may also give online by clicking HERE.
(Donations to PMI are not tax deductible.)

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.