Not totally blue: Florida bans gay marriage

MIAMI (AP) - Florida may have turned blue on Election Day, but voters in nearly every county voiced resounding agreement on one conservative measure: Marriage should be defined in the state’s constitution as between a man and a woman.

The amendment banning gay marriage was part of a disappointing Election Day for gay rights advocates. Similar measures passed in Arizona as well as California, where same-sex marriage had been legal after a Supreme Court ruling earlier this year.

Same-sex marriage was banned in Florida law even before Tuesday’s election, but Floridians voted to enshrine a definition of marriage in the state’s constitution, where supporters said it would be even more secure.

Democrat Barack Obama may have won the state’s prized 27 electoral votes, but a vote for Obama didn’t translate to a vote against the amendment. Black voters overwhelmingly supported Obama and Hispanic voters favored him, but both groups — approximately a quarter of Florida voters — also approved the amendment by significant margins.

“They vote for a candidate but don’t necessarily vote for a more liberal position,“ said Matt Corrigan, a University of North Florida political science professor.

Derek Newton, campaign manager for the group that opposed the amendment, said he believed the presidential race drew a lot of new or infrequent voters that were not educated about Amendment 2 and who voted for it rather than skip the question.

“Florida is a Southern state, which makes it naturally more conservative,“ said Newton, campaign manager for Florida Red and Blue’s “SayNo2” campaign. “We just have a harder hill to climb.“

All but eight of Florida’s 67 counties voted pass Amendment 2 by more than the required 60 percent it needed by law to pass. Counties in populous South Florida — Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and Broward — didn’t give the amendment the 60 percent it needed to pass. Neither did voters in Alachua County, home to the University of Florida. Those voters, however, were outnumbered those in other counties including the Panhandle, where counties supported the amendment by margains of 70 and 80 percent or more.

Only Monroe County — which includes the Florida Keys — gave the amendment less than 50 percent support.

That Florida passed Amendment 2 is not a shock; though the 60 percent support required to pass is high, voters across the country have almost universally approved similar amendments when given the chance. Thirty states have now asked voters whether they wanted to put a definition of marriage in their constitution. Only one, Arizona, has ever rejected that amendment — and reversed course on Tuesday.

Still, Floridians voiced more approval than in other states. Sixty-two percent approved the measure, far higher than in Arizona and California where voters also passed marriage amendments. The Arizona and California amendments only required 50 percent approval to pass and did with approximately 56 and 52 percent.

John Stemberger, the state chairman of Yes2Marriage.org which had backed the amendment, also cited support from black, Hispanic and religious communities. He said that if Florida had a 50 percent threshold that a lot less “blood, sweat and tears” would have had to go into passing it.

“We’re just amazed and grateful at the response,“ he said. “When you strengthen marriage and family you are solving so many other problems in society.“

Newton said his group will still pursue a complaint against supporters with the Florida Elections Commission and a lawsuit filed in Miami alleging Amendment 2 supporters improperly funded advertising. Supporters have said they did nothing illegal.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.