Equality Maine kicked off its signature gathering effort last weekend to place a vote on marriage equality on next fall's ballot.
According to Andi Parkinson writing at Dirigo Blue supporters of marriage equality will have to collect 57, 277 signatures to place marriage equality on the 2012 ballot.
More over the fold....
From Dirigo Blue:
The renewed effort to get gay marriage approved in Maine kicked off Saturday as petition-gatherers fanned out across the state, targeting farmers markets, parades and festivals in communities form York to Bangor.
Equality Maine says the effort targeted a number of communities including Portland, Kennebunk, Biddeford, York, Bangor, Ellsworth and Brunswick.
The idea was to target heavily attended festivals. Thus, signature-gatherers were at a street festival in Biddeford, an art festival in Brunswick, and the Bob Dylan concert in Bangor.
In Bangor on Sunday it was reported that 385 signatures were collected in only 90 minutes, and drives are underway in Portland and Lewiston, among other places:
By evening, EQME was reporting on Twitter that the dozens of volunteers had collected 3,165 Maine voter signatures on Saturday alone. That number was later updated to be over 5000 signatures- a fantastic start.
This is indeed a good start. While it is not optimal to decide this issue by plebiscite, I for one will take my equality any way I can get it. If it passes, it will certainly no longer be true that "anywhere it has gone to the vote of the citizens, marriage equality loses". It will also be necessary to make a concerted effort to reach out to citizens in more conservative areas such as Aroostook county and cities with large Franco-American populations where Yes on 1 (which repealed marriage equality) did well in '08. The mistake that was made last time was to count these folks out. I am of the opinion that while most of the signatures will be from more liberal, Southern Maine, canvassing in conservative areas will raise awareness before groups like NOM get a monopoly on the hearts and minds of these voters.
If you are in New England and want to help fight to get marriage equality on the ballot next November, you can find all the information you need to get trained and to get involved at
Equality Maine's website. I will be canvassing, and I hope to see you out in the streets!