l****z
发帖数: 29846 | 1 RALEIGH -- North Carolina has become the 31st state to add an amendment on
marriage to its constitution, with voters banning same-sex marriage and
barring legal recognition of unmarried couples by state and local
governments.
North Carolina is the last state in the South to add such an amendment, and
supporters hoped for a resounding victory.
Incomplete returns show the amendment up 61.05 percent to 38.95 percent.
Primary turnout was heavy. Though there were many other races on the ballot,
including primaries for statewide offices and congressional seats, the
amendment appeared to drive much of the political discussion.
Marriage rights for gay couples has been a topic of national debate this
year, and North Carolina’s amendment and the campaigns for and against it
drew international attention.
North Carolinians think of the state as progressive, but that’s within the
context of the rest of the South, said Andrew Taylor, a political scientist
at N.C. State University.
“This is a socially conservative state,” he said.
The state has a 16-year-old law banning same-sex marriage.
At least two other states will be voting on gay marriage rights in November.
Minnesota has a constitutional amendment on its ballot. Maine has a
referendum to allow same-sex marriage. Voters in Maryland and Washington
state may be asked to affirm new state laws allowing same-sex marriage.
Money from national interest groups poured into North Carolina. The National
Organization for Marriage contributed $425,000 to the Vote for Marriage
campaign, according to the latest reports, and the Human Rights Campaign and
its affiliates contributed nearly $500,000 to the opposition Coalition to
Protect All N.C. Families.
Vote for Marriage raised more than $1 million, and the Coalition to Protect
All N.C. Families raised more than $2 million.
U.S. amendment called for
The Rev. Billy Graham appeared in a full-page ad supporting the amendment,
and others in his family recorded pro-amendment messages.
About 250 amendment supporters crowded a ballroom at the Hilton North
Raleigh for the celebration that was part standard-issue campaign victory
party and part wedding reception.
There was a cash bar, and music that included love songs. The centerpiece
was a seven-tier white wedding cake, capped by a plastic heterosexual couple
embracing.
After the Associated Press declared that the amendment would pass, Tami
Fitzgerald, the Vote for Marriage chairwoman, took the stage to thank the
churches, political groups and other volunteers who had helped deliver the
win.
“Ladies and gentlemen, through God’s great mercy we have won an
overwhelming victory tonight,” she said.
The voters, she said, sent a clear and unmistakable desire to “protect
marriage in our state, in our country.
“As you all know, marriage was not invented by government. Our creator
established it as the union of a man and a woman in an exclusive lifelong
covenant and it has merely been recognized by government as the key to a
strong and flourishing society.”
Amendment opponents had former President Bill Clinton and his former chief
of staff Erskine Bowles record telephone messages to voters. President
Barack Obama’s campaign put out a statement saying he opposed the amendment.
Opponents worked to raise doubts about the amendment’s consequences,
including running television ads that focused on weakened domestic violence
protections for unmarried couples, and loss of health insurance for children
of same-sex couples.
The early returns projected at the front of the downtown Raleigh event hall
were mostly ignored by the crowd of amendment opponents who joined the
gathering.
Jen Jones, communications director for Protect All NC Families, said the
campaign would have done nothing differently.
“We had an unprecedented coalition,” she said. “We were on TV as much as
we wanted to be. We talked to everyone we could about unintended
consequences.”
Incomplete returns show the amendment losing in only a handful of counties,
including Wake, Durham, Orange, Chatham, Buncombe and Watauga. The amendment
was losing in Mecklenburg County, but results there were incomplete.
Opponents anticipate a slew of lawsuits with the courts ultimately deciding
how the amendment will effect employment-related benefits and legal
arrangements between unmarried couples.
Church involvement credited
The Vote for Marriage campaign has its foundation in churches and ran
television ads featuring the Bible. They fought back against what they
characterized as opponents’ myths, saying that the amendment would have no
impact on domestic violence protections.
“The involvement of the local churches across this state was absolutely the
turning point,” said the Rev. Mark Harris, president of the Baptist State
Convention of North Carolina.
The string of national amendment victories supports arguments for amending
the U.S. Constitution to allow only heterosexual marriages, Harris said.
Before the campaigns ramped to full intensity, Harris called for a “civil
conversation” on the issue.
Civility seemed to melt away by Tuesday.
A Cabarrus County man posted a YouTube video of himself firing a shotgun
into a “vote against” sign. A Durham neighborhood listserv stopped taking
comments on the amendment when the debate got too hot.
Campaigners for and against the amendment called a steady stream of
complaints into the Wake County Board of Elections on Tuesday, each side
complaining about the opponents’ illegal electioneering.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Gary D. Sims, Wake’s deputy
elections director.
A strong election draw
For some voters, the amendment was the main or only reason they came to the
polls.
Cameron Hughes, 25, was in the process of moving to Charlotte for a new job
in banking, but came all the way back to Chapel Hill Tuesday afternoon and
drove straight to his polling place on Estes Drive.
Fueling his trip in equal measure were gasoline and cold anger that the
amendment was even on the ballot.
“It’s an embarrassment and it’s pathetic, and I’m ashamed to have to
come out here and vote on something like this, and, if the polls are right,
I’m ashamed that apparently a large majority of the citizens of my state
are pro-bigotry,” he said.
Hughes made the long trip to ink in just one oval on his ballot. He said
that he had been so focused on finishing up work on a graduate degree in
recent months that he hadn’t been able to properly study the candidates for
various offices.
Lynne Greene, of Cary, voted for the amendment, at the Fellowship of Christ
Presbyterian Church polling site. She said she could support civil unions
but not gay marriage.
“I have an issue with the use of the word marriage,” said Greene, a
Republican who is retired. “I believe a marriage is between a man and a
woman.”
‘People are conflicted’
Polling by the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling and the conservative
Civitas Institute both showed the amendment winning by double digits, but
the Public Policy Poll showed that a majority rejected the amendment after
they learned it would also ban civil unions and domestic partnerships.
“People are conflicted,” said Jasmine Beach-Ferrara, executive director of
the Campaign for Southern Equality, a group advocating for full marriage
rights for gay couples. “They hear one thing in their faith community,
particularly that homosexuality is a sin. They have an LGBT (lesbian, gay,
bisexual, transgender) family member or neighbor or co-worker. People are
trying to reconcile those two experiences.”
Voters said they were confused about the amendment’s wording, and that
confusion continued in some polling places where some voters received
ballots without the constitutional question on it that were intended for 17-
year-old voters
A Triangle voter advocacy group says it has received numerous complaints
from people who were given the wrong ballot while trying to vote Tuesday.
The N.C. Election Protection hot line, part of a nationwide voter education
coalition coordinated by the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under the
Law, fielded calls from voters all day who were given a ballot without the
amendment, said Elizabeth Haddix, staff attorney with the UNC-Chapel Hill
Center for Civil Rights, which sponsored the hot line Tuesday.
“We’ve certainly gotten a heavy volume of calls, many more than we
expected in a primary,” she said. | y****t
发帖数: 10233 | 2 沉默的大多数.
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ballot,
【在 l****z 的大作中提到】
: RALEIGH -- North Carolina has become the 31st state to add an amendment on
: marriage to its constitution, with voters banning same-sex marriage and
: barring legal recognition of unmarried couples by state and local
: governments.
: North Carolina is the last state in the South to add such an amendment, and
: supporters hoped for a resounding victory.
: Incomplete returns show the amendment up 61.05 percent to 38.95 percent.
: Primary turnout was heavy. Though there were many other races on the ballot,
: including primaries for statewide offices and congressional seats, the
: amendment appeared to drive much of the political discussion.
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