UPDATE (6:07 p.m.) - A vote on the Marriage Equality bill is expected at some point Friday evening, multiple Senators have said. The vote will be close, and rumors are spreading that the Senate Democrats have secured the votes needed for bill passage. "I know they've got the 32nd vote, and I think they've muscled two more people," Mike Long, chairman of the New York Conservative Party chairman told The Weekly Standard.

However, predictions have gone back and forth all week. Many senators in the Capitol admit they don't know how it will pan out. According to The New York Times's latest count, "The marriage measure, which was proposed by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and approved by the state Assembly, has been publicly endorsed by 31 of the 62 senators--leaving the measure one vote shy of the votes needed for passage in the Senate. The announced supporters include 29 of the 30 Senate Democrats and 2 of the 32 Senate Republicans. Supporters and opponents alike said that anything could happen when the Senate takes its vote."

UPDATE (5:37 p.m.) - New York Times Albany bureau chief Danny Hakim is offering more updates from his sources. He tweeted, "#gaymarriage coming to floor, Senate source says." And followed up a few minutes later, "Senator Alesi on #gaymarriage vote: 'its what I was hoping for' and 'it'll be tonight'." (Senator Andrew Alesi, a Republican from Staten Island, is one of the few undecided votes that could decide the bill's fate.)

UPDATE (4:58 p.m.) - The New York State Senate confirmed The Times report by releasing the updated bill in an announcement. (Read the full language here.) However as Confessore points out on Twitter, "One wrinkle: New #gaymarriage bill contains a "nonseverability" clause. If any part of law got struck down, the whole thing goes down."

ORIGINAL POST - Jon Campbell from Gannett's Albany bureau corroborated Hakim's report, tweeting, "Sen. Maziarz says #samesexmarriage bill will come to Senate floor for a vote."The New York Times is reporting that Governon Andrew Cuomo and State Senate leaders have reached an agreement on the religious exemption language that has kept the bill stalled in negotiations all week. Though this means the negotiations over the measure have cleared one hurdle, there is no news on when or if the bill will be brought to the Senate floor for a vote. According to The Times's Nick Confessore and Michael Barbaro:

Senate Republicans were still discussing the marriage bill among themselves in a close door meeting on .... And it remained unclear whether--and even if--they would permit a vote on the broader legislation. Assembly lawmakers, which approved an earlier version of the same-sex marriage bill last week, would need to approve the new language in a new vote before the full bill could become law.

Governor Cuomo, meanwhile, has vowed not to let the legislation die without coming to a vote and will call lawmakers back to Albany if the legislative session ends before that happens.The same-sex marriage bill still stands in line behind the omnibus bill, also known ans "big ugly"--that includes the rest of the legislation in limbo, including laws on property tax caps, rent regulations and mandate relief--which has been printed.

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.

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