Protect Marriage Illinois files Federal Complaint, Errors by Cook Co, City of Chicago, and SBE

Protect Marriage Illinois and the Illinois Family Institute recently filed a complaint in Federal Court to protect the rights of Illinois citizens who have, in good faith, petitioned their government for a Marriage Protection Referendum to be placed on the Illinois General Election ballot on November 7, 2006.

Background For the past three weeks PMI, IFI and dozens of good hearted volunteers have been analyzing thousands of signatures -- signatures that were "invalidated" by various Illinois Election Authorities (Boards of Election in Chicago, Cook, DuPage, Stark and others) in a random sample of PMI's 347,000 signatures, which were turned into the State Board of Elections (SBE) on May 8, 2006.

During our analysis, we found many, many errors, especially in Chicago and Cook County (about a 10 percent error rate in their findings). Some of the mistakes were blatant. Here are some examples:

· A woman who was registered to vote as "Deidra" signed our marriage petition, but her signature was disqualified because she signed as "Dee."

· The signature of one woman who signed as "Sue" was disqualified because on her voter registration certificate she signed as "Susan."

· Many citizens who printed their names on the petition were "invalidated" because their printed names didn't match their voter registration signatures. (Our lawyers tell us that printing one's name is acceptable.)

· One woman, probably in the rush to sign our petition, omitted the last digit of the street number of her home address. She is a registered voter, but because of that single missing digit, her name was disqualified by election officials.

· Possibly the worst part of all this is the fact that the SBE had to "invalidate" 10,788 of our signatures because they were considered "out of jurisdiction." What does that mean? Simply put, if you live in the City of Chicago but signed on a petition that contained mostly suburban Cook County signatures, your signature (as of now) does not count.

Now, do not get mad at the SBE, they are only following the draconian rules set forth by the Illinois General Assembly. So if you want to get mad at someone, get mad at Springfield lawmakers who set up these ludicrous requirements -- including the unjustifiably high signature requirement for non-binding questions of public policy, a number more than eleven times the amount required of those seeking statewide office.

The vast majority of Illinois citizens recognize that these are blatant and excessive violations of our right to petition our government. These rules effectively discourage citizen involvement.

Our legal team, led by Mike Lavelle (former chairman of the Illinois State Board of Election) and attorneys from the Alliance Defense Fund, have a strong case showing that not only enough good signatures were invalidated, but that the irrational rules that citizens are required to adhere to are so severe, it effectively impairs the citizen's ability to exercise their First Amendment Right to petition the government for redress of grievance.

Legal Battle Intensifies - You Can Help! As you can see, we are now in the midst of the legal effort to secure all of our hard work. With each passing day, we grow more confident that we will succeed and qualify for the ballot in November. So please keep praying and please continue financially supporting our work to defend marriage in Illinois.

The other side is very well funded. In fact, some political leaders in Chicago recently "rallied together to donate $15,000" to fund our oppositions' efforts to derail us (read more HERE), and the Democratic National Committee gave $10,000 to opponents of PMI (read more HERE).

Of course our opponents also include activists affiliated with the ACLU, Gay Liberation Network, NOW and the People for the American Way -- and they are all working overtime to block our Marriage Protection Referendum from getting on the ballot in November. Why? Because they know that Illinois voters will vote by an overwhelming margin in support of preserving the legal definition of marriage as one man and one woman!!!

Please help us fund our legal defense and become an important part of strengthening families and communities throughout Illinois!

Our legal defense costs are mounting fast -- and we are only in the middle of this legal battle. It will cost tens of thousands of dollars, but it is necessary to help stop the highly-organized and well-financed "Fair Illinois" coalition that is desperate to stop Illinois voters from having the opportunity to vote "YES" for the Referendum!

If you believe in keeping marriage from being radically redefined by the ACLU and its pro-homosexual, pro-polyamorous allies, please send your most generous contribution to Protect Marriage Illinois today. We are supported by voluntary donations from individuals like you across the state of Illinois. Click HERE to give online!

We need and greatly appreciate your financial help. Some can give $1,000 to $5,000 -- others can give $100 to $500 -- but even just $25 or $10 is greatly appreciate!! Anything you can do to help defend marriage will help us support, protect and strengthen Illinois families. Please mail your donation today to:

You may also give online by clicking HERE. (Donations to PMI are not tax deductible.)

We have 115 election jurisdictions in the state of Illinois, some have a city in a county and then the outside county. If someone from suburban Cook signs a petition with City of Chicago or visa versa they are invalidated. If people from more than one county sign a petition they are invalidated.

Also if the signiture doesn't appear as an exact match as it does on the voter card it will be invalidated by people like the city of Chicago or Cook County just because someone was signing in a hurry or signiture has changed over time. No research is done to see if this person signed it or not.

You need 8% of the total voters from the last election to sign and many good registered voters signitures are thrown out. The major party candidates to get statewide ballot access requires 5,000 sigs that don't have these rules.

And yet the dead in Chicago have no trouble voting.

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