A top North Carolina elections official
has quit over a proposed constitutional amendment that would ban gay
marriage.
Sherre Toler, a Democrat, resigned from
her 11-year post as Harnett County elections director, saying she
could not in good conscience preside over the upcoming vote.
The move allows Toler to speak out
against the bill, something she was discouraged from doing as a state
election worker.
“The rights of a minority group being
put to a popular vote,” Toler told the Associated Press.
“It's immoral and unconstitutional.”
In an interview with progressive
blogger Pam
Spaulding, Toler added that “discrimination is discrimination
in whatever form it takes.”
“The Supreme Court acknowledged in
the Loving case that the 'freedom to marry, or not marry, a
person of another race resides in the individual, and cannot be
infringed by the State.' … The same constitutional provisions that
led the court to that decision most certainly apply to the 'freedom
to marry, or not marry, a person of [the same gender] resides with
the individual …' We cannot allow the civil rights of a minority
group to be put to the vote of a majority.”
In her January 3 resignation letter,
Toler said she would open her own political consulting business to
work against the amendment's passage and help elect progressive
candidates.