Important Alert!
Defense of Marriage in Texas Hangs on Voter Turnout!
Urgent Action Requested:
We are urging all pro-marriage Texans to be sure and go to the polls on November 8th and vote for Proposition 2, the marriage amendment to the Texas Constitution.
In addition, it is now even more important that you also identify and urge at least 10 other voters who will support this amendment to get to the polls and vote. This is because anti-marriage groups opposed to this amendment have unleashed a deceptive and misleading telephone campaign on over a million Texas households in an effort to confuse and frighten voters about this amendment.
Voter turnout is traditionally very low at constitutional amendment elections such as the one coming up next Tuesday. Polls show this amendment is supported by the vast majority of Texans. But unless pro-marriage voters turn out and vote, there is a real danger that the well-organized and well-funded minority opposed to this amendment who are certain to turn out and vote could win, That would make Texas the first state in the nation to defeat a marriage constitutional amendment!
Text of Proposition 2:
“The constitutional amendment providing that marriage in this state consists only of the union of one man and one woman and prohibiting this state or a political subdivision of this state from creating or recognizing any legal status identical or similar to marriage."
Summary of the problem:
On November 8th, Texas will be the 19th state to vote on a state constitutional marriage amendment. Voters in all the other 18 states have passed their constitutional amendments by substantial margins. This proposed constitutional amendment passed the Texas legislature by large majorities and public opinion polls show strong majority support for it among the voters.
While normally this would suggest that the amendment should pass easily, this upcoming vote will be unique in several ways. Most significant is that traditionally these off year constitutional amendment elections such as this one on November 8th, where there are no major races or other issues to bring voters to the polls, generally have very low voter turn out. Only between 7% and 12% of eligible voters are expected to vote. (In all the other states which have passed amendments, there were major races being decided which helped turn out a broad cross section of the voters.)
Complicating the effort to pass this amendment is the deceptive and misleading campaign now being waged by anti-marriage groups to try to defeat this amendment by confusing and scaring voters. In addition to running media spots, they have unleashed a telephone pressure campaign on over a million Texas households as part of their effort to defeat Proposition 2. In their campaign they are claiming that the language of the amendment would hurt traditional and common law marriages. Legislative sponsors and independent legal experts who have examined this charge agree that it is baseless and ridiculous. This anti-amendment campaign is so bad that pro-marriage groups have filed complaints with several government agencies in an effort to stop it, but so far without success.
This well-organized, well-financed and determined small minority of Proposition 2 opponents WILL turn out and vote against it. If they can scare or confuse enough pro-marriage supporters to either not vote at all or to vote against Proposition 2, then they will win.
The bottom line is that passage of Proposition 2 is by no means assured. Unless pro-marriage voters turn out and support it, this small minority could pull off a major upset by defeating the Texas marriage amendment. The biggest threat to marriage in Texas and in the country in the next two weeks is that pro-marriage voters will complacently assume that there is no need for them to vote because this proposition will easily pass anyway.
The defeat of Proposition 2 would not just be embarrassing for Texas. It would also have national impact because it would seriously disrupt the momentum that pro-marriage groups are building nationwide for passage of a federal constitutional marriage amendment by passing these state constitutional marriage amendments.
Please get out and vote for Proposition 2
Please personally urge at least 10 others to vote for Proposition 2 and follow up to encourage them to actually get out and vote.
Please help spread the word by forwarding this amendment on to as many others as possible.
Thank you!
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United Families International PO Box 2630 Gilbert, AZ 85299-2630
Phone: (480) 632-5450 • FAX: (480) 892-4417