Naked City

Nine constitutional amendments will appear on the Nov. 8 election ballot, but only one of them will drive voters to the polls. Proposition 2, the proposed ban on same-sex marriages and civil unions, took the No. 2 spot Monday in a drawing to determine ballot placement for the amendments. "Other than 'two' not rhyming with any fun slogans, I don't think [placement] makes much difference," said Glen Maxey, statewide director of the "No Nonsense in November" campaign to defeat the measure. "The bigger issue is if anyone will go vote in the first place."

Because voters typically sleep through constitutional amendment elections – only 12% of registered voters cast ballots in the last such election two years ago – Maxey believes the No Nonsense effort could accomplish what similar campaigns failed to achieve in other states in 2004. More than a dozen states have constitutional bans on same-sex marriages. "A great grassroots organization will win this one," he said. In other words, "Who's motivated the most and who is most passionate about getting out their supporters?" For-tunately for Proposition 2 opponents, gay-marriage foes have been slower to organize or even come up with a catchy slogan, although Rick Perry did send an "urgent message" to voters this week – in both e-mail and video format – to support the ballot initiative on traditional marriage through a newly formed group called the Texas Marriage Alliance.

Other constitutional amendments on the ballot would create the Texas rail relocation and improvement fund (Proposition 1), "clarify" that aconstitute debt (Proposition 3), allow the Legislature to define interest rates for commercial loans (Proposition 5), and establish a six-year term for Regional Mobility Authority board members (Proposition 9).