All eyes are on Maine as vote on same-sex marriage looms

This is Paula Brooks reporting from Portland, ME… 05:35 EST 11/3/09 welcome
Today voters in Maine could make history by becoming the first U.S. state to make same-sex marriage legal by popular vote as they head to the polls to decide Question 1, which seeks repeal of the Maine’s marriage equality law.

Five other states, including four in New England, have legalized same-sex marriage through the courts or legislation. If Question 1 is defeated and the now-suspended law upheld by voters, Maine would be the first state in the nation where gay and lesbian couples won the right to wed through a statewide vote.

Most public opinion polls in the state show a dead heat on Question 1.

Yesterday armies of volunteers from both side of the issue hit the streets across the state armed with lawn signs and cell phones, making a final push for votes as Mainers prepared to cast their ballots.

Both sides likewise worked the phone banks hard yesterday and I doubt there is a voter in Maine that has not been contacted in some from.

In addition, television commercials pro and con same-sex marriage crowded the airwaves all yesterday evening here in the Pine Tree State.

The campaign against same-sex marriage has been recycling commercial from the effort that overturned a California Supreme Court ruling allowing same-sex marriage a year ago, featuring melancholic parents bewailing how their young children will be taught in school that marriage between two women or two men is the norm.

However, the No on One people have been running a very sophisticated public relations program focusing on the people of Maine’s wariness of outsiders, and calling attention to the fact that most of the money financing the “Yes-on-1″ campaign came not from Mainer’ but from out of state. No on One is also making this an election of basic decency and rights.

News items questioning “Yes on 1”’s largest contributor, The National Organization for Marriage, and the investigation by the state ethics commission into that organization and stories about rallies by supporters on both sides of the issue were getting prominent airtime on Maine’s news programs. Monument Square. Portland, Maine

Yesterday, No on One held a noontime rally in downtown Portland that attracted an estimated 1000 people. Over the weekend both sides of the issue held rallies and vigils across the state.

The weather here in Maine should not be a factor in this election. Right now it is overcast and cool, but the forecast for today is calling for partly sunny skies with highs in the lower 50s across most of the state.

Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap predicts 35 percent of the states voting age residents, an expected 500,000 voters, will turn out for today’s election… so now it all comes down to who can do a better job getting out their vote…

LGR will be here bringing you updates all day and the final results when the polls close at 8 pm tonight.