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Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Dream Act Repeal Plan Is No Hit on the Web

While confident that last week they had the required signatures to bring the Dream Act to referendum, petition drive leaders had advice on future efforts to overturn Maryland laws: A strong Internet presence alone doesn’t ensure success.

Del. Patrick L. McDonough, honorary chairman of mdpetitions.com, which made downloadable forms available online to help spearhead a drive to overturn the law that grants in-state college tuition to illegal immigrants, said website submissions did not make up the majority of signatures his group collected by the evening of June 30.

“If the passion and the drive were absent, the Internet wouldn’t make a difference,” McDonough (R-Harford, Baltimore County) said. “The real untold story here are the passion and the drive have been the motivating factor behind the success.”

McDonough and his group have asked voters to put their names on the petition to bring the law to the general election ballot in 2012. The law, which was scheduled to take effect July 1 but will be delayed as Board of Elections staff verify the signatures allows students who graduate from a Maryland high school and whose families have filed state income taxes to pay in-state tuition at public colleges and universities.

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