Oregon citizens voted to ban same-sex marriage in 2004, and now they will have the opportunity to become the first to repeal the ban. This weekend, Oregon United for Marriage announced that they had received enough signatures to place a same-sex marriage initiative on the 2014 ballot. The notice was sent to supporters via email on Saturday.
Daily Kos reports on the email:
“It's been just four months since we started gathering signatures on the Freedom to Marry and Religious Protection Initiative,” said Ryan Brown, the group's field director. “Thanks to volunteer signature gatherers in every Oregon county, I have some amazing news to share: We have over 116,284 signatures in hand!”
Signature gathering will continue to guard against failing to qualify due to invalid or duplicate signatures.
The state has clearly come a long way since its previous vote nearly a decade ago, but more signatures and support are always needed. We will keep our fingers crossed for a successful, and historic, repeal of the same-sex marriage ban!