Gay rights advocates say they’re confident a referendum opposing same-sex marriage won’t make it to the ballot.
Jurisdictions all over Illinois are double-checking signatures on a petition to bring the measure before voters. The state department of elections randomly picked about a fifth of the signatures for counties and election boards to verify.
Volunteers at Fair Illinois, a coalition of gay-rights groups, say they’re combing through every single signature. The group’s Matt Kuzma says they’re finding enough invalid information to conclude that the petition drive will fail.
“We knew from the beginning that the amount of support they claimed was not there, and when we go through all the petitions, we’re sure we’re going to find that as well,” he says.
Supporters of the referendum need about 280,000 valid signatures. They turned in about 60,000 more than that.
Peter LaBarbara of pro-referendum Protect Marriage Illinois concedes it will be close, but says the issue is bound to wind up on the Illinois ballot sooner or later.