Gay Marriage Ban May Make CA Ballot

The petition drive to get an anti-gay marriage amendment on California's November ballot is getting close to the number of signatures needed to succeed.

The organization collecting signatures for a proposed amendment banning same-sex marriage in California says it is close to meeting the requirement. Protect Marriage says it has collected 881,000 of the 1.1 million signatures needed. The deadline for turning in the petitions to county registrars is April 21.

Registrars are then required to take a random sample of signatures to verify. If that sampling shows at least 10 percent more valid signatures than required the petitions will be certified and the measure will be placed on the November ballot. "The numbers are good, solid," Ron Prentice, a spokesperson for Protect Marriage told The Christian Examiner, a conservative Christian publication.

If the amendment makes the ballot and is approved by voters, it will override any decision by the California Supreme Court and prohibit the state legislature from further action on marriage equality, effectively ending the fight in California. Same-sex marriage was approved by the California legislature in 2005 and 2007 but was vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger each time.