Marylanders Standing Up Against Progressive Decadence

from the Baltimore Sun

A group trying to repeal Maryland's new same-sex marriage law said they submitted 39,743 additional signatures to the state Monday, bringing to 162,241the number of people who asked to put the law on the November ballot.

The amount far surpasses the nearly 57,000 needed to trigger a referendum and exceeds a self-imposed goal of reaching 150,000 signatures made by the Maryland Marriage Alliance, a group spearheading the repeal effort.

"These incredible numbers clearly show that Marylanders strongly reject the idea of redefining marriage," said Derek McCoy, the executive director of the Maryland Marriage Alliance, in a statement.

The group did not respond to several emails requesting a copy of their ballot fund report, a document that shows who gave them money and how they spent it. The report will be public Tuesday.

Maryland's state board of elections has already verified 109,313 signatures from the group's initial submission a month ago -- roughly twice the needed signatures to qualify the question for the ballot. The board of election will have to sift through today's signatures before they certify the results.

Josh Levin, the campaign manager for Marylanders for Marriage Equality, which supports gay marriage, said in a brief statement: “As we expected, our opponents met the legal signature threshold and the Civil Marriage Protection Act will be on the ballot this fall."