Suzanne Rucker is the former chairwoman of the Cumberland County Republican Party in North Carolina. She writes in the Fayetteville Observer:

For eight years, this amendment has been introduced and ignored by the General Assembly, even though credible polling indicates that 70 percent-plus of North Carolina voters support a constitutional amendment defining the union of one man and one woman as the legal definition of marriage.

... Powerful lobbying groups who donate large sums of money are against this amendment. As a result, for eight years, the General Assembly has denied the voters the right to vote on this amendment. This is wrong. And, in my opinion, denies me my civil right to have a vote on the issue.

Yes, ours is representative government, but, for reasons mentioned above, not in this instance. Were representative government truly applied to the protection-of-marriage amendment, every legislator would vote to give the people of North Carolina the right to vote on whether or not to enact the amendment. That's what the upcoming vote is about - whether or not to allow citizens the right to vote.