The petitioners have turned in what they say is 63,000 signatures for each of the two petitions, delivered to the secretary of state’s office in nine file boxes. Are they confident that they’ll make the ballot? “I’m confident of one thing, we will vote on [the new gay rights laws] either this time or next time,” says Marylin Shannon, referring to a possible repeal effort if these signatures don’t make the cut. She adds: “My money’s on us making it” this time.

To get on the ballot, 87 percent of those signatures have to be valid—which would be a record, better than the current record holding Measure 36 got (they were 86% valid).

Shannon says their volunteers burned the midnight oil to verify signatures and clean up their lists. And, she says, “the people we appealed to [to sign] were law abiding citizens,” who wouldn’t sign if they weren’t qualified.