Anti-Gay ballot question in MA:Fraud

[drlloyd11]

So, long and short, after getting enough signatures to ammend the MA constitution to ban Gay Marriage it turns out ...
1)they paid "volunteers" to go get them
2)They told people they were getting signatures for an anti-animal cruelty ballot,and had them sign the anti-gay one instead..

http://boston.com/news/daily/26/horse_ballot.htm

[april]

clearly these conservatives watched "heathers" a few too many times.

"hey, *i* signed a petition to put a hot tub in the cafeteria!"

sad when the homophobes have to resort to such tactics...

[SlayerTazz]

OMG - it is so sick to see what some people do because of their narrow mind.

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A dream is a wish the heart makes.

Willow: "You had two eggs, sunny-side-up. I remember because they were wiggling at me like little boobs."
Tara: Sassy Eggs.

[drlloyd11]

Its not so much sad as a testiment to their desperation and ambition. Its really just pitiful...

[GreenNeutron]

grrr. phobes. grrr.

*grumble*

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~Mel

Random Ass Webpage

[This message has been edited by GreenNeutron (edited March 26, 2002).]

[Robin]

That's exactly what I'm expecting those kind of people to do: lying and cheating!

[Willow-n-Tara_1]

When will the phobes learn that the world they are trying to keep together will eventually fall apart and I for one would like it sooner then later

The one thing that makes me smile about this is that everytime they get caught doing something stupid like this it just makes them and their "cause" look even more ridiculous

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From Out Aug01::: Joss on the Amber/Aly 'Kiss'
"Can we have one that's less like you're going to sleep together in about five minutes"

[Shadowcat]

Stupid bastards. I hope they get their asses sued all the way to jail. Grr.

[Zahir]

quote:

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Originally posted by april:
sad when the homophobes have to resort to such tactics...

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On the contrary! That they're reduced to such is evidence they know they're losing the fight!

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"O let my name be in the Book of Love.
If it be there, I care not of
That other book Above...
Strike it out! Or write it in anew.
But let it be in the Book of Love!"
--Omar Kyam

[This message has been edited by Zahir (edited March 27, 2002).]quote:

[GreenNeutron]

quote:

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Originally posted by Zahir:
On the contrary! That they're reduced to such is evidence they know they're losing the fight!

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Yay, good! lose now. !

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~Mel

Random Ass Webpagequote:

[amberisadamngoddess]

I cant believe people would degrade themselves so much be doing that

Sorry, i just like this one so i thought id make him roll about here

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Amber is a Goddess

[Hasu No Hana22]

This is sad, very sad, that homophobes have to resort this low. How lame! I hope that they get what they deserve.

[Walker]

And we're supposed to be what, shocked by this. Homophobes - not the most fair and even minded people on the planet. At least they got caught. Although I don't know why they wouldn't get caught. People who's brain function hasn't gotten above straight good, gay bad, cannot be the best and brightest America has to offer.

[Ryath]

I wholeheartedly agree with Shadowcat.

[Under Her Spell]

Hopefully this will now help to invalidate the anti-rights campaign.

[Nostalgianaut]

They're such dweebs that they have to trick people into agreeing with them. Talk about being in the loser club.

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Nostalgianaut

[Genea]

I'e heard some crappy things but, that takes the cake. WHat a bunch of idiots.

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Sugarloaf
"Due to the recent presidential elections, the light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off."

[Cipher]

This is why I rarely sign petitions and when I do I make sure I read the text on the page carefully. Never sign a page that doesn't have the text of the petition at the top. Also note that electronic petitions are pretty much worthless because it is trivial to copy the names onto unrelated petitions or reverse the sense of what you are signing (you think you're signing a gay-rights petition and instead they submit it as an anti-gay-marriage petition). Only when standards for digital signatures by authentic individuals (ie. no cheating) have infrastructure in place and are in common practice will electronic petitions be trustable (and then they'll be more secure than paper petitions, so stunts like this bait-and-switch won't be possible).

I hope the anti-gay-marriage petition gets invalidated, but I doubt the case will get settled soon enough and it might not address whether that petition would have failed to get enough signatures had deception not been used; the case is brought by the horsies group because the signature gathering company's deliberate fraud stole their signatures for the higher profits of the other petition and left them short of having enough (while still presumably charging for the horsie signatures they did collect, taking their money in bad faith), so they have no particular legal standing on invalidating the other petition.

The article doesn't indicate whether the number of suspected stolen signatures would have kept the anti-gay-marriage petition from having enough without the deception. It might be that there are enough ignorant people who support that petition to have done it anyway, especially as there were enough ignorant people even in a state like California to pass a stupid measure like that. It's possible that the homophobes knew of or approve of the deception (they aren't crying about the extra money they were charged for signatures obtained by deception), but it could be tough to prove bad-faith on their part to invalidate their petition (unless the stolen signatures are the difference between enough and not); we can hope though that this'll hurt public perception of them and make it less likely to pass.

But hopefully the signature gathering company will have its license(?) suspended or be barred from such activity for some significant period of time (at least one or two election cycles) and/or have a huge punitive fine (paid to the state) for violation of the public trust.

Maybe a law will get passed requiring such companies to charge equal rates for signatures, so they have no financial incentive to commit such fraud. Of course, some people will still have personal reasons to commit such deception, and it might be a lot harder to catch and prove.

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"Don't hurt the horsies!"