U.S. & World News

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) ― State lawmakers braced Friday for a weekend onslaught of phone calls and e-mails from both sides in the gay marriage debate, as they prepared for votes on whether to override Gov. Jim Douglas' promised veto of legislation to allow same-sex couples to wed.

The House gave the measure final approval on a 94-52 roll call vote — a margin just short of the two-thirds of the 150-member body needed to overcome the veto.

The state Senate is expected to concur with the House action on Monday. The governor's office says he will then veto the bill quickly. Both supporters and opponents promised to mount a goal-line stand in advance of override votes that could some as early as Tuesday.

The preparations Friday came amid a slightly less electric atmosphere than was seen a day earlier at the Statehouse, when some 200 gay marriage opponents rallied on the Capitol's steps and hundreds packed the galleries as the House gave the bill preliminary approval after five hours of debate.

Lawmakers said they were buried in e-mails from around the country, with a few from Canada and the United Kingdom.

Duncan Goss, Statehouse chief of information technology, said normal traffic runs between 5,000 and 15,000 e-mails a day in and out. It had doubled that on several recent days and peaked at more than 85,000 on March 26, the day after Douglas said he would veto gay marriage.

Lawmakers said they wanted messages from their constituents but didn't have time to read, never mind answer, messages from California or Pennsylvania. But sorting out the keepers was proving difficult, Goss said.

"John Smith at GMail-dot-com could be your next-door neighbor or he could be in Walla Walla, Washington, or in Zanzibar, for that matter," Goss said.

Rep. Kate Webb, D-Shelburne, a gay marriage supporter, said she had received more than 2,000 e-mails during the past week. About 40 were from constituents and were running in favor of the bill about 3-to-1, Webb said.

The Senate approved the measure March 23 by a vote of 26-4, so an override vote was seen as assured there. The House is where the attention is likely to be focused. Supporters of the bill said they would urge a small group of legislators who voted no but were perceived as on the fence to change their votes on the override.

At least two said they would. One, Rep. Sonny Audette, D-South Burlington, said he would do so out of anger at what he termed a lack of respect for the Democratic-controlled House by Republican Gov. Jim Douglas.

"We in the House are just as deserving of respect as he is," said Audette, a member of the House Transportation Committee who has sparred frequently with the governor over fuel taxes and other issues. "He seems to think we're nothing but a bunch of peons down there."

Rep. David Zuckerman of Burlington, who is a member of the Progressive Party, noted the bill got 95 votes on Thursday. One supporter was absent, but at least one likely opponent was as well. Then there were the two no votes expected to switch on the override. And the Vermont Constitution allows the speaker to cast a vote — something that rarely happens. House Speaker Shap Smith, D-Morristown, is a supporter.

"We're certainly getting really close. And I'm hopeful we can get over the top," Zuckerman said. "The question is, are there other 'nos' that we can persuade to help us out?"

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