Haters Make Maryland Ballot

The state of Maryland has certified the marriage equality repeal petitions turned in by a coalition of hate groups.

"We're excited, we're on the ballot," said Dereck McCoy, executive director of the Maryland Marriage Alliance, a church-led group pushing to repeal the law. "We're glad that we were able to have a loud say." The Maryland Marriage Alliance submitted 162,224 signatures to repeal the law — the most turned in on any referendum issue in recent memory. The Board of Elections stopped verifying after approving 109,313 of them. "We've determined that the petitions satisfied the legal requirements," said Donna Duncan, director of the elections management section of the state Board of Elections. A spokesman for Marylanders for Marriage Equality, a group defending the new law, would not say whether his group plans to mount a court challenge. "We're not taking any options off the table," said Kevin Nix, the spokesman. The group has long assumed that opponents would be able to put the question to voters, Nix said. "Our base is fired up, momentum is with us."