Elections board issues final ruling against ballot referendum

Elections board issues final ruling against ballot referendum
By Gary Barlow
Copyright by The Chicago Free Press


As expected, the Illinois State Board of Elections ruled Aug. 11 that a right-wing group didn’t get enough valid signatures to put an anti-gay marriage referendum on the November election ballot.

“As of now, the Illinois State Board of Elections has closed the case,” said Rick Garcia, of Equality Illinois, which organized the Fair Illinois Committee with Lambda Legal, the American Civil Liberties Union, PFLAG, the Gay Liberation Network and others to battle the referendum.

The advisory referendum, aimed at urging Illinois lawmakers to pass an amendment to the Illinois Constitution banning gay and lesbian marriages, was pushed by Protect Marriage Illinois, organized by the anti-gay Illinois Family Institute.

PMI submitted petitions containing more than 347,000 signatures to the ISBE in May. A random check of those petitions by ISBE staff found so many invalid signatures and other inaccuracies that the ISBE concluded that the petitions didn’t have the required 283,000 signatures from registered voters to put the referendum on the ballot.

That validated the findings of Fair Illinois volunteers, who during a three-week period scrutinized every signature and submitted challenges to tens of thousands of the signatures. The ISBE’s random check, however, meant that it never had to rule on Fair Illinois’ challenges.

“We are pleased that the Board of Elections found what our volunteers found—anti-gay proponents don’t have the support in Illinois that they claim,” Garcia said.

Backers of the anti-gay referendum, who’ve claimed that Illinois law governing referendums is unduly restrictive, failed to show up at last week’s hearing. Lambda attorney Jim Madigan said he was pleased at the outcome.

“The Board of Elections refused to let Protect Marriage Illinois play by special rules and applied the same law to them that applies to everyone else,” Madigan said.

PMI was also rebuffed Aug. 2 in federal court when U.S. District Court Judge Elaine Bucklo upheld Illinois law regarding referendums and ruled against the group’s lawsuit seeking to put the referendum on the ballot despite their inability to get the required number of valid signatures. On Aug. 4 the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals denied the right-wing group’s request for an injunction stopping the ISBE from ruling against the referendum while it appeals Bucklo’s ruling.

That appeal is scheduled to be heard in the next few week’s but analysts say PMI has little chance of success.

Fair Illinois’ Jim Snyder praised the unified effort GLBT community groups and individuals have put together to fight the anti-gay referendum.

“When we work in unity, we can move mountains,” Snyder said. “Our community and our allies should really be proud of themselves.”