Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley makes a last-minute pitch for Ballot Measure 6:
The race in Maryland remains tight. Chris Johnson reports on the latest robo-call blitz from the National Organization for Marriage:
Brian Brown, NOM’s president, touted the campaign as "the largest national mobilization of traditional marriage voters in history" and said it would reach 10 million voters across the nation… NOM says it has allocated $500,000 for the campaign, which involves robocalls to homes in Maine, Maryland, Washington State — where marriage will be on the ballot — as well as Wisconsin, Ohio and Pennsylvania, which are considered swing states in the presidential election.
NOM just sunk $1.65 million into the amendment battle in Minnesota, where the race continues to be too close to call. E.J. Graff is pessimistic:
The polling looks bad. The percentage who say they will vote "no" hasn't topped 46 percent in a while. As I’ve noted repeatedly, all undecideds vote against us. If someone hasn’t thought about why same-sex couples might want to marry, their instinct is to vote for the status quo…. I don’t know anyone in the LGBT advocacy community—except maybe inside Minnesota, where they have to have hope to continue the fight—who expects the amendment to lose.
There’s a quirk in this initiative: It has to pass with 50 percent of all votes cast¸not just a plurality. That means that anyone who leaves that spot on the ballot blank is voting against the amendment. Some folks have hung their hopes on that. I don’t.
But polls are looking better in the Washington fight. In Maine, marriage equality is ahead 52 – 45 on the last poll. In these skirmishes, getting above 50 percent is critical, since, as EJ notes above, most undecideds break against equality. Im guardedly optimistic about Maine, Maryland and Washington. Especially Washington. We may get the first actual initiatives for marriage equality passed in the two northernmost states on both coasts.
The Dish 