Colorado Activists Drop Marriage Vote Campaign

The effort to repeal Colorado's marriage equality ban was officially dropped Thursday.

College student Mark Olmstead confirmed that he and his team will abandon the effort to collect the 86,000 signatures needed to get the question on the 2012 voter ballot, according to the Denver Post. Olmstead was given clearance to seek ballot signatures in July to overturn the 2006 law.

"I think the attitudes in Colorado toward gay marriage have shifted since 2006," he told the Post in July.

The Denver Post reports that the prominent gay rights group was not on board for the plan to legalize marriage equality through a ballot initiative. Instead, the group plans to lobby state legislators for a civil union bill.