Texas Lone State Voting on Marriage Amendment Today
by Allie Martin and Jody Brown
November 8, 2005
(AgapePress) - - Voters in Texas are heading to the polls today to decide the fate of a constitutional amendment that would protect traditional marriage. Proposition 2 would ban any kind of marriage except the union of one man and one woman.
Registered voters in the Lone Star State are finding the following language on their ballots today: "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." Voters are asked to vote for or against the proposition, which made it to the ballot after being passed in decisive fashion by both the state House and Senate earlier this year.
Texas is the only state with a marriage amendment on the ballot this year; at least four others -- Alabama, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Tennessee -- are expected to decide the same issue next year. Eleven states approved similar measures last November.
Although Texas is viewed as a conservative stronghold, Christian activists say the vote could be close. Kelly Shackelford, president of the Plano-based Liberty Legal Institute (LLI), says a low turnout in early voting is not a good sign.
"The highest turnout in the counties so far is in the strongest county that is for homosexual marriage, and that's Travis County," the attorney says. Travis County includes Austin, the state capital, which has a large and active homosexual community. "Certainly the side that is against this [proposition] and in favor of homosexual marriage is very energized," he continues. "They have a lot of money that's come in from out-of-state."
Shackelford says the entire nation will watch the Texas vote closely -- and not just because it is the only state with the issue on the ballot this year. "If the Texas marriage amendment were to fail, I think most people believe that this would be a complete end to the whole Federal Marriage Amendment effort," he says, then explains his rationale.
"If you're a U.S. senator and you want to hide on that issue, you can't do that right now because all the states are coming out in favor of marriage being a man and a woman. But if Texas were to vote it down, all of a sudden you would have a lot of cover, as a senator, to say 'Look, Texas didn't even support this.'"
Shackelford also points out that homosexual activists have engaged in a campaign of untruths in their effort to defeat Proposition 2. Late last week Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott reported that autodial phone calls crisscrossing the Lone Star State were misleading voters about the wording of the proposition, claiming it would somehow dissolve heterosexual marriages in the state. That argument, said Abbott, is "wholly without merit" and, from a legal basis, "completely baseless."
Shackelford agrees, saying the claim by the group Save Texas Marriage is "duplicitous" and is based on an argument that no "respectable" legal organization will publicly support.
"Texans don't like political tricks," said LLI's chief counsel. "Now everyone knows the truth. It's not complicated. Texans should vote for Proposition 2 if they want to keep marriage only between one man and one woman -- and vote against it if they want the definition of marriage changed."
