UPDATED 4:10 p.m. EST

ORLANDO (FBW)–John Stemberger, state chairman of Florida4Marriage.org, Jan. 14 declared a state of “constitutional emergency” when he learned about 22-30,000 petitions are still needed by Feb. 1 to place the Florida Marriage Amendment on the ballot for 2008.

“We are in a state of constitutional emergency with this announcement and we need immediate action from everyone who supports the Florida Marriage Amendment,” Stemberger said.

According to a story in the Miami Herald, a recount by an unprecedented county-by-county audit revealed Miami-Dade's election offices had “double-counted” some 27,000 paper petitions that were turned in prior to January 2007. Florida4Marriage.org, Stemberger said, did not take over the responsibility for turning in the petitions to the supervisors of elections until August of 2007.

Bill Bunkley, Florida Baptist Convention’s legislative consultant called the situation “urgent” and said he has no idea what the core issues are that arose between the individual counties and the division of elections that has caused the discrepancy in numbers.

“In a state that had the type of difficulties during the chad years, it is unimaginable that we then follow up with what is close to a manual count of petitions—and find a way to not get that count right,” Bunkley said. “For nearly 600,000 Floridians who were petitioning their government without the use of any paid signature gatherers, they are basically being told that this state is not going to be accommodating them between now and the end of the month to let them know where they stand on redressing their government on a constitutional issue and that is wrong.”

Bunkley was referring to what he said was a ruling by the Department of Elections that Florida4Marrriage.org would be given any further information on how many ballots are collected between now and the Feb. 1 cutoff date.

“Right now we are called as men and women of faith are often called to first pray and depend on our faith and then to come together and absolutely take this emergency sitiuation seriously,” Bunkley said. He suggested those who support the amendment spend the next 7-10 days armed with petitions and share them at church, at school and anywhere they travel in the state, asking two questions: “Are you a registered voter? and “Have you signed the Florida Marriage Protection Amendment?”

Bunkley predicts that within the next seven days “if the sanctity of marriage is truly a top priority for men and women of faith” this state-wide deficit should be able to be made up.

“I call on all Florida Baptist pastors at their Wednesday night and Sunday services to have petitions available for anyone in attendance who would like to sign the Florida Marriage Amendment but who has not yet had an opportunity to do so,” Bunkley said.

Stemberger said the organization is not interested in whose fault it is that there are now apparently too few signatures for the Florida Marriage Amendment to go on the ballot. He is calling on national, state and local leaders to “immediately contact their Florida supporters, making them aware of this crisis.”

“Right now we are not interested in whose fault it is,” Stemberger said. “We are interested in getting the job done and getting it done immediately.”

The state constitutional amendment seeks to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman and would prohibit polygamy, group marriage, and same sex marriages in Florida.

Stemberger told the Witness he was contacted by the Department of State and told the Florida Marriage Protection Act, after a county by county audit shows only 589,020 signed petitions by Jan. 10, as opposed to the more than 611,009 it reported in December.

Under new laws in Florida, petitions have to go directly from Florida4marriage.org to the supervisors of elections and this means the organization must have the signed petitions in their physical possession in the state headquarters in Orlando by Tues., Jan. 29, in order to get them to the supervisors on time, Stemberger said.

He shared three action steps:

1. Ask neighbors and others who may not have already signed one to sign a petition—and share with church members the importance of the values involved.

2. Ask new residents and those who have just turned 18 to sign a petition.

3. Offer financial support. $50,000 is needed for immediate costs related to a mailout of 40,000 direct mail pieces.

Mathew D. Staver, president and general counsel for Orlando-based Liberty Counsel said he believes pastors and churches should be actively involved in the urgent movement to get signed petitions in.

"There is no restriction on pastors and churches, Staver told Baptist Press. What I would encourage pastors to do is to distribute a marriage petition to every single member in the congregation and set aside a few minutes to walk them through how to fill it out, and then have the ushers collect those and get them to Florida4Marriage.org by Federal Express. I would not simply have a table in the back, because you could have a several-thousand-member church and only obtain a few hundred signatures that way. We don't have time to do that anymore.

"I think right now pastors and churches will play the determinative role as to whether we're going to protect marriage in Florida, said Staver who is also a member of First Baptist Church in Orlando.

For more information about where to obtain a petition, go to: www.florida4marriage.org or call 407-251-1957. Send petitions to: 4853 S. Orange Ave., Orlando, FL 32806.