I am one the many volunteers opposing the initiative in CA. We saw a number of abuses in the collection of signatures of registered voters. First, the initiative campaign was sufficiently well-funded by wealthy (mainly Catholic) conservatives. Many came from the San Diego area like Doug Manchester who gave at least $125K to the signature gathering effort (precipitating a boycott of his hotel in San Diego). The initiatives proponents had a war chest in the millions, enough to hire hundreds of professional signature gatherers state-wide. You can always spot these folks by their tables and clipboards with numerous petitions. Because they are paid up to $3 per signature, and paid at the end of the day in cash, the PSG profession can attract people with dubious ethics. We saw PSGs "moving" (copying) signatures and misrepresenting to people what they were signing e.g. "Do you support gay marriage?" ... "Yes" ..."Well, sign here." They also used verbal and physical threats and harassment to intimidate those of us who volunteered to collect signatures in favor of same-sex marriage (we like to call it "marriage equality.") It was not surprising when we heard that 2 PSGs in Sacramento after calling the police to get rid of our volunteers at a shopping center were arrested for a Florida homicide.

The second major problem with this initiative is that the checking of signatures is not at all transparent and is based on a cursory sampling technique. It is very likely that the signatures would not stand up to proper scrutiny but the policy intent is to support a process giving people the right to vote and is not likely to become more rigorous very soon.

After the June Primary we volunteers will hit the streets to oppose the initiative. The CA Supreme Court decision has incredibly energized the LGBT community and our allies. It would be surprising if the Catholic Church and their proxies like Manchester, the evangelicals and conservative Republicans did not enter the battle on the other side with even more millions of dollars. Besides merely weighing in on the fray, you might consider volunteering or making a directed contribution to the organizations who are leading the fight for our equality such as Equality California, The Human Rights Campaign or the ACLU. We are hoping to build our own war chest of $15M.