Maine vote repeals gay marriage law
Maine voters on Tuesday repealed a state law granting same-sex couples the right to marry, defeating an effort by gay activists who hoped the state would become the first to approve gay marriage at the polls.
Nearly 53 percent of voters opted to throw out a same-sex marriage law passed by the state Legislature in May, while 47 percent voted to uphold it, with 87 percent of precincts reporting early Wednesday morning.
The vote in Maine was being closely watched by both supporters and opponents of gay marriage across the country one year after voters in the most populous state, California, passed a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. Only five states currently allow same-sex marriage.
As voters went to the polls on Tuesday, gay marriage advocates were emboldened by what appeared to be higher than expected turnout in Maine. Even before polls opened on Tuesday roughly one-tenth of the state’s registered voters submitted mail-in ballots or voted early.
And in an interview late Tuesday night on MSNBC, Maine Democratic Gov. John Baldacci said that at polling places it looked like “the presidential election all over again.”
“A lot of young people were showing up, a lot of first-time voters were showing up,” Baldacci said. “I was encouraged by that.”
Supporters also hoped money would make a difference in the outcome. The main group working to keep the state’s marriage law on the books, Protect Maine Equality, outraised the leading opposition group, Stand for Marriage, by more than $1 million.
Gay marriage supporters were looking to make Maine the sixth state — in addition to Iowa, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Connecticut — to legalize same-sex marriage.
In Washington state, voters also were poised to decide whether to endorse the state’s “everything but marriage” law, which would give gay and lesbian couples more of the rights that married couples now enjoy.
In all, 26 measures appeared on the ballot in six states on Tuesday, making 2009 one of the slowest years for ballot initiatives in the past decade, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
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Sources: Politico, MSNBC, Google Maps
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