December 18, 2007
Advocates and allies of the homosexual legal agenda have a strategy for dealing with those who oppose them: take away their right to vote.
In the battle for marriage, one constant has been the overwhelming support marriage receives when it is put to the vote clearly and on the merits. Twenty-eight states have voted on marriage amendments – 27 of those amendments have passed. Even more impressive is the
average "pass rate" of such measures: 69 percent. The people of this nation recognize marriage as the union of one man and one woman.
Those seeking to fabricate same-sex "marriage" have long recognized the American public is a roadblock to their success. In 1998, after ADF-allied litigation allowed Alaska citizens to vote on (and pass) a constitutional amendment barring same-sex unions, the ACLU executive director declared: "Today's results prove that certain fundamental issues should not be left up to a majority vote."
And that ACLU view has been shown in case after case, now in Oregon.
The Oregon Legislature enacted HB 2007 – creating domestic partnerships. The people said "no" and Referendum 303 was created, which – if placed on the November, 2008 ballot – would provide voters with an opportunity to repeal this unwanted bill.
When the referendum was submitted to the Oregon Secretary of State on September 26, signatures exceeded the required number by more than 6,000. However, the Secretary of State announced there were not enough signatures to sustain the referendum. The evaluated "sample" was said to be only five signatures short. If you wonder how this could happen, you aren't alone. As it turns out, there is a very clear explanation – many of the signatures were wrongfully rejected.
Signatures were invalidated for allegedly not matching their voter registration cards, being illegible, or coming from unregistered voters. But according to ADF attorneys who examined the signatures, several of those kicked out
did match,
were legible, and the affected voters actually
were registered. In other words, many valid signers were ignored.
Interestingly, the officials in charge —ignoring their own policy – did not contact any of the 254 signers whose signatures were excluded from the representative sample and have adamantly resisted numerous attempts by signers to authenticate the signatures in question. One county clerk even told a rejected signer, in person, and to their face, "tough nuggets."
"The county clerks must fulfill their duty, which is to make sure that every citizen's voice counts," said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Austin R. Nimocks. "Our country is founded on the basic principle of government of the people, by the people, and for the people. It is un-American that Oregon voters are being denied the right to have their voice count in an important referendum."
ADF attorneys have filed a lawsuit on behalf of Oregonians from 12 different counties whose signatures were wrongfully invalidated by clerks' offices. A copy of the lawsuit in one of these cases,
Lemons v. Bradbury can be read at
www.telladf.org/UserDocs/LemonsComplaint.pdf.
When the will of the people counts, marriage can be protected. Join us in prayer that the court will protect the voting rights of Oregon citizens.