In its quest to ban all legal unions between same-sex couples in the state, Protect Marriage Illinois ( PMI ) traveled downstate May 8 to hand-deliver the signatures needed to place an anti-gay advisory referendum on the November ballot.
PMI is the sister organization of the right-wing, anti-gay Illinois Family Institute.
On Monday, PMI turned in 345,199 signatures for the Marriage Protection Advisory Referendum.
PMI needs 283,111 valid signatures to have the referendum placed on the ballot. The organization had planned to gather 500,000 to make up for throw-outs.
The referendum calls on state legislators to amend the state constitution in order to define marriage as between one man and one woman, and ban all legal same-sex unions. However, the referendum, if passed by three-fifths of Illinois voters, does not have the force of law. It is just an advisory.
According to the Illinois State Board of Elections, counting the signatures will take some time. The state agency must first count the pages, and then confirm each signature. It could be a long process, depending on how many signatures have been collected.
Illinois does already ban gay marriages by not recognizing those done outside of the state. Section 212 of the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act also prohibits same-sex marriages.