Buried under all the human interest stuff are these noteworthy aspects of an AP story:

Last month gay marriage opponents submitted 345,199 signatures to get the measure on Illinois ballots this fall. They need 283,111 valid signatures from registered Illinois voters to meet the state’s requirements.

That group, Protect Marriage Illinois, is monitoring the state’s verification process and raising money for any challenges to the petition.

“We want to ensure that the residents of Illinois aren’t disenfranchised because they forgot to put a middle initial in, or their ‘T’ looks a little different or their handwriting is shaky because they signed on a bus,” said David E. Smith, project director for Protect Marriage Illinois.

State Board of Elections officials already have thrown out about 10,000 of the signatures submitted. Many weren’t filed under the correct election jurisdiction, said Steve Sturm, legal counsel at the state board.

Election authorities in 110 jurisdictions are checking about 19 percent, or 64,519, of the remaining signatures, Sturm said.

The authorities will make sure the signers are registered to vote in their jurisdictions. Most will verify information of about 500 signers.

About 11 election authorities have reported back to the State Board of Elections so far, but state board officials wouldn’t say how many signatures were valid until all jurisdictions were finished.

Jurisdictions are supposed to report to the board by Tuesday, but most will be asking for extensions, Sturm said.

Rick Garcia, political director of the gay rights group Equality Illinois, said he doubts Protect Marriage Illinois will meet the state’s requirement.

“There is no way that they’re going to come up with that number because we’re finding so many invalid (signatures),” said Garcia, who’s group is spearheading the Fair Illinois Committee’s campaign.

Smith said he didn’t have any reason to be concerned about meeting the requirements.

I’ve seen bold predictions on both sides, but we’ll just have to wait and see if they make it.

I did hear several days ago that some gay activists were disappointed that they weren’t getting significant financial support from Gov. Blagojevich, but I haven’t checked back lately.