BY LUISA YANEZ
lyanez@herald.com

Barring a court challenge, Miami-Dade voters will go to the polls in September to decide whether to repeal the county's gay rights amendment.

Miami-Dade Elections Supervisor David Leahy on Tuesday certified that a coalition of religious and civic groups had obtained enough signatures to force the vote. His decision came one year after the signatures were turned into his office, amid allegations of fraud.

``The petitions have met the requirements set by the county charter and are officially certified,'' Leahy said.

The question will appear on the Sept. 10, 2002, state primary election ballot.

Miami-Dade voters will decide whether to repeal the 1998 amendment to the county's human rights ordinance, which protects gay men and lesbians from discrimination in jobs, housing and banking.

Leaders of Take Back Miami-Dade, who sued Leahy over the petitions, were subdued in their response.

``We are glad Mr. Leahy finally honored the rule of law,'' said Eladio José Armesto, Take Back Miami-Dade's communications director. ``But we should not have to celebrate things that should be an every day occurrence in America, such as respecting the constitutional rights of the citizens to vote on the highly controversial sexual orientation amendment.''

Anthony Verdugo, chairman of the Miami-Dade Christian Coalition, among the most active in the campaign, called the certification a good deal for voters. ``This is a victory for the community, democracy and for the people of Miami-Dade who will finally get to vote on this issue.''

Ben Kuehne, the attorney for SAVE Dade, the gay rights group, said he will file a lawsuit in circuit court.

``We'll be challenging on the basis of blatant fraud and improprieties in the gathering and submission of signatures,'' Kuehne said. The group has 10 days to act.

SAVE Dade's interim leader, Heddy Peña, said the group will focus on the battle at the ballot box.

``We will not allow a repeat of 1977,'' she said, referring to the divisive Anita Bryant anti-gay crusade.

Miami attorney and activist H.T. Smith, who fought for passage of the amendment in 1998, welcomed the vote.

``This is a battle that needs to be fought to stop those who want to discriminate against people because of their sexual preference,'' he said. ``I say better now than later. I'm ready to put on my campaign boots.''

The county commission is now required to vote to put the question on the ballot. The matter is likely to come up on the Jan. 29 meeting. From that point, the commission will have 30 days to either repeal the ordinance or approve a referendum on the issue for the September election.

In October, a similar petition drive in Broward to overturn the county's gay rights law by a special election fell short of the needed signatures after election officials rejected 12,000 signatures.

Meanwhile, the Miami-Dade state attorney's office is still investigating allegations of fraudulent signatures.

``The certification of the petitions have no impact on our investigation,'' spokesman Ed Griffith said.

It's unclear what would happen to the ballot question if the investigation results in criminal charges.

For SAVE Dade, the battle for money, supporters and voters comes at a time when the group is without a permanent leader. Jorge Mursuli, the group's former executive director, resigned last month to join People For the American Way.

The group was bruised during the recent Miami Beach elections with its endorsement of Elaine Bloom for mayor. She cast two high-profile votes while in the Florida Legislature -- one banning gays from adopting in 1977 and another 20 years later for the Defense of Marriage Act, which prohibits same-sex unions.

Since September, Leahy has been sampling 100 signatures at a time, submitting them to a formula. He conducted 14 separate samples before the 15th sample -- which netted only 25 invalid signatures -- passed muster. Of the total 1,500 signatures sampled, 1,091 were deemed valid.

Based on the 15 samples, Leahy said 73 percent of the signatures were deemed valid -- enough to meet the threshold of 34,991 signatures or 4 percent of the county's registered voters.

Of the 27 percent of the signatures discarded as invalid, Leahy said some were from people who were not registered voters. In other cases, the signatures were disqualified because they did not match the county's handwriting samples for that voter.

The review of the signatures was controversial from the start. Soon after they were turned in Dec. 1, 2000, some petitions were immediately thrown out for being improperly notarized.

Election officials examined 200 more signatures and disqualified another 63. Of those, 38 were thrown out because the signatures differed from those on voter registration cards. A Herald review found 24 of the 38 valid.

Both sides have levied accusations of wrongdoing. In January, SAVE Dade unveiled evidence of what it considered ``rampant fraud'' in the petition drive. In turn, Take Back Miami-Dade has presented its own evidence of wrongdoing, charging that SAVE Dade infiltrated their petition drive and submitted forged signatures.

Herald staff writer Karl Ross contributed to this report.