Thursday, October 2, 2008

Florida October Surprise

I just received my sample “absentee” election ballot in the mail. Here is its full text, as printed on the ballot (italics mine):
NO. 2
CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT
ARTICLE I, NEW SECTION


Florida Marriage Protection Amendment

This amendment protects marriage as the legal union of only one man and one woman as husband and wife and provides that no other legal union that is treated as marriage or the substantial equivalent thereof shall be valid or recognized.

The direct financial impact this amendment will have on state and local government revenues and expenditures cannot be determined, but is expected to be minor.
I'm looking for a copy of the ballot online to offer objective verification, but so far, this is the best I can do. And that page comes from the Florida Division of Elections itself, which appears to be as official as it gets as far as Florida elections/ballots go.
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There are six numbered amendments, and one non-numbered referendum on this ballot. NONE of the other amendments, nor the referendum include that fiscal disclaimer.

At first I was wondering if I was the only one who missed that biased little tidbit (for the past 3 years), until I ran across the official signature form, which can be accessed at the state elections site (see above).

That page is from the website Florida4Marriage.org, which is now, and redirects to, Yes2Marriage.org, which, of course, doesn't include a copy of the original signature form, because no additional signatures are necessary, as the amendment is already on the ballot, hence the reason for the words you are reading right now.

Apparently the first site (F4M) was designed to get the signatures, and the second (Y2M) to get the votes.

Granted, had that VERY RECENTLY ADDED fiscal disclaimer been on the signature form, they would have gotten even more support.

So yes, I guess I'm a complete hypocrite, and I'm crying "BIAS!", just like the anti-gay activists did in California when the same thing was done in our favor.

The difference is, it wasn't sprung on them at the last minute.

Oh, AND, not to mention that they're part of the same band of UN-Christian lying SOS's who make a mockery of everything that this country stands for.

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