SAME-SEX DECISION DAY
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BY MATT WICKENHEISER Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel 11/03/2009

BY MATT WICKENHEISER

Portland Press Herald

Today, every state in the union will be looking east toward Maine.

For months, the state's debate about same-sex marriage has dominated its news and politics.

Among seven ballot questions, Question 1 has stood out: "Do you want to reject the new law that lets same-sex couples marry and allows individuals and religious groups to refuse to perform these marriages?"

Today, voters will answer that question at the polls.

While five other states allow same-sex marriage, Maine's is the first statewide vote on the issue.

As such, it has drawn the attention of national newspapers such as The New York Times and The Washington Post. Network news programs have focused segments on Question 1.

Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap predicted voter turnout of 35 percent -- about in the middle of past turnouts in off-year elections. The number of Mainers voting early with absentee ballots has surpassed the numbers for past off-year elections, according to town and city clerks around the state.

Today's weather is expected to be a repeat of Monday's -- sunny and seasonable -- perfect for heavy voter turnout. Both campaigns were hard at work right to the end to make sure they got as many of those votes as possible.

No on 1/Protect Maine Equality, the group fighting the repeal effort and supporting same-sex marriage, held a noontime rally in Portland's Monument Square on Monday, drawing 400-plus supporters.

Those who gathered held "No on 1" signs and set up big signs facing Congress Street traffic that read "Let Love Win!" and "Marriage -- Let's Have More."

No on 1 campaign manager Jesse Connolly pushed the crowd to vote, and bring other people to the polls with them.

That was the overall push for the day, Connolly said later.

"We're trying to get as big of a turnout as we can," he said. "We want to turn supporters into voters."

Statewide, campaigners were canvassing neighborhoods, knocking on doors and dropping off campaign literature, and making phone calls to get out the vote, Connolly said.

On the other side of the debate, Stand for Marriage Maine didn't organize any big events or rallies, spokesman Scott Fish said, adding, "What we do have are lots of volunteers working statewide as individuals or small groups."

Stand for Marriage Maine had volunteers going door to door across the state, and working the phones, Fish said. The campaign also was attempting to respond to reporters from around the country who planned to cover election night returns in Maine.

Stand for Marriage Maine launched a new radio advertisement Monday, trying to get traction on an issue that arose late in the campaign.

A complaint was filed against a Nokomis Regional High School guidance counselor, Don Mendell of Palmyra, because he appeared in a television ad against same-sex marriage. Another guidance counselor filed the complaint.

"While Mr. Mendell is entitled to his own personal opinion," the complaint says, "he does not have the right as a licensed social worker to make public comments that can endanger or promote discrimination."

The new ad refers to the complaint, and says again that if the same-sex marriage law is allowed to stand, homosexual marriage will be taught in Maine schools.

Fish said the complaint against Mendell should be "chilling to anybody in Maine that has to go to the state for a license."

"We've said all along that one of the consequences of this bill ... (is it) leaves individuals and small business with religious, conscientious obligations vulnerable to litigation," Fish said.

Connolly reiterated Monday that the No on 1 campaign had nothing to do with the complaint against Mendell. "We totally don't think anyone should be fired for speaking out on any side of this issue," he said.

Connolly noted a recent story in the Sun Journal newspaper of Lewiston that reported on a Catholic woman who had been dismissed by her pastor as a lector and Eucharistic minister because of a letter she wrote to the paper supporting same-sex marriage.

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