Anti-gay petition moves to verification process

A petition seeking voter approval of a state constitutional ban on gay marriage in Nevada passed another hurdle Friday when the secretary of state's office said more than enough signatures were collected to move to a verification process.

Deputy Secretary for Elections Susan Morandi sent a letter to all 17 county clerks and registrars of voters telling them to begin the signature verification process, which could take up to nine working days.

The county workers will have until July 7 to perform the signature verification process. In counties where the number of signatures submitted is less than 500, all of the names must be verified. For counties with larger numbers of signatures, a 5 percent sample or 500 signatures, whichever is greater, must be checked.

The raw count by the secretary of state showed that the Coalition for the Protection of Marriage turned in 120,558 signatures. The group needs 44,009 valid signatures of registered voters in at least 13 of the 17 counties to qualify the measure for the November ballot.

Under the initiative petition, only marriages between a male and a female would be recognized in Nevada. This is currently in state law, but the group wants the law given more weight by placing it in the state constitution.

Opponents claim the initiative amounts to discrimination and bigotry. The Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada and about 20 other groups across the state formed the Coalition for Unity to campaign against the ballot measure.

The Coalition for the Protection of Marriage is heavily supported by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose members were central to antigay marriage efforts in Hawaii and Alaska, and most recently, in California.

However, the former Catholic bishop of Las Vegas, Daniel Walsh, asked priests and parishes to support the traditional family but not to support Ziser's effort because it fosters ill-will toward gays.