California Gay Marriage News This Week

Filed Under Gay Marriage, Headlines | June 4th, 2008 

Gay Marriage NewsLast week I was telling my partner that things in California were going to heat up on the Gay Marriage front and that things were far from over. This week’s headlines thus far bare that musing out.

The Wall Street Journal says: California Sees No Rush Of Gay-Wedding Bookings, but that’s hardly surprising considering some of the confusion that’s out there right now. I suspect that many of the marriage minded gays in California who are ready to step down the aisle are still waiting to see how this all pans out.

On Monday, Secretary of State Debra Bowen certified the eighth initiative for the November 4, 2008, General Election ballot. The measure would amend California’s Constitution to define marriage as a union “between a man and a woman.”

In order to qualify for the ballot, the marriage definition measure needed 694,354 valid petition signatures, which is equal to 8% of the total votes cast for governor in the November 2006 General Election. The initiative proponents submitted 1,120,801 signatures in an attempt to qualify the measure, and it qualified through the random sample signature check.

County elections officials have 30 working days to verify the validity of the signatures filed with their offices using a random sampling method. The state Elections Code requires elections officials to verify 500 signatures, or 3% of the number of signatures filed in their county, whichever is greater. Counties receiving fewer than 500 petition signatures are required to verify all the signatures filed in their offices.

A measure can qualify via random sampling, without further verification, if the sampling projects a number of valid signatures greater than 110% of the required number. This measure needed at least 763,790 projected valid signatures to qualify by random sampling, and it exceeded that threshold on Monday with 764,063 projected valid signatures.

The AP notes in this video that although the issue is on the ballot: “Local officials can start issuing marriage applications to gay couples June 17th. Gay couples would still be able to get married between the middle of June and the election unless the court agrees to stay its decision until after the November 4th election. If the measure passes, its unclear if gay marriages in the next five months will be nullified come November.”

And speaking of the court and whether or not it will stay its decision… Yesterday, the Mo. AG requests Calif. stay same-sex marriage ruling. The article states that 10 states have asked the California Supreme Court to delay finalizing its ruling, and they name New Hampshire as one of them. That’s incorrect however, as The Boston Globe reported on May 31st that NH is no longer asking Calif. court to delay the marriage ruling. Although I suppose they could have changed their mind yet again.

Thats all a rather moot point I guess, as today, Reuters reports that: California’s Supreme Court has denied requests to delay the start of same-sex marriages this month.

However, there’s still that little matter of the ballot to consider… I’m sure that things are going to get even more interesting and crazy in California for quite awhile.

Related Posts:
- California Supreme Court Issues Historic Marriage Ruling
- ‘We Won!’ Exclaims First Couples to File Equal Marriage Lawsuit in California