So this is the "Democracy" Liberals mean?
From WorldNetDaily...
In 2004, several thousand same-sex couples were given marriage licenses in Multnomah County, prompting Oregonians to approve by a 57-43 percent margin a constitutional ban on homosexual marriages. A court nullified the licenses.
The result aligned with 148 years of precedent in the state. However, 54 legislators in the statehouse during 2007 and Democratic Gov. Ted Kulongoski ignored it, working together on the new homosexual couples proposal.
They even included a section in a new law suggesting schools address the "attitudes" of those who do not choose to support those relationships....
The state already has begun implementation of the new law, with plans confirmed by prison officials to allow inmates who are part of a domestic partnership to live in the same prison facility, and in the same unit, a privilege specifically denied married inmates....
In a column on the issue, Alan Sears, chief of the ADF, noted that the issue of marriage consisting of – and only of – one man and one woman is supported overwhelmingly in the U.S. Twenty-seven of 28 states where voters have decided the question have limited marriage to one man and one woman....
"When the (new) referendum was submitted to the Oregon Secretary of State on Sept. 26, signatures exceeded the required number by more than 6,000. However, the Secretary of State announced there were not enough signatures to sustain the referendum. The evaluated 'sample' was said to be only five signatures short. If you wonder how this could happen, you aren't alone. As it turns out, there is a very clear explanation – many of the signatures were wrongfully rejected," Sears said.
"Signatures were invalidated for allegedly not matching their voter registration cards, being illegible, or coming from unregistered voters. But according to ADF attorneys who examined the signatures, several of those kicked out did match, were legible, and the affected voters actually were registered. In other words, many valid signers were ignored," he continued.
Clerks have "adamantly"' resisted efforts by signers to authenticate their signatures. "One county clerk even told a rejected signer, in person, and to their face, 'tough nuggets,'" Sears said.
Bill Burgess, the clerk in Marion County, confirmed the state had given county clerks instructions to follow a "precedent" and not correct any incorrectly classified signatures they may have been told about....
[U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman] in Portland has concluded the state of Oregon doesn't need to count all of the signatures on [the] petition...allowing the state law to take effect immediately. He concluded the state has little significant obligation to count voters' signatures on the petition. His ruling came at the end of a hearing on Friday.
In other words, the people voted against homosexual marriage, and the Oregon legislature ignored them and legalized it any way. Then when the people of Oregon signed petitions to put it to another vote (to toss out the law passed contrary to their earlier vote) the Oregon Secretary of state illegally discounted legitimate votes, and the Oregon judiciary backed him up.
Funny how Liberals like claiming America is a Democracy (which it isn't) but have no problems circumventing the Democratic process (which we are indeed supposed to use) whenever it suits their agenda.
Posted by Danny Carlton at February 5, 2008 6:19 AM