Valentine's Day vote planned on same-sex marriage bill

The House Judiciary Committee and the House Health and Government Operations Committee will meet jointly at 4:30 p.m. this evening to vote on Gov. Martin O'Malley's bill legalizing same-sex marriage in Maryland.

The two panels heard the bill jointly in a nearly 11 hour hearing last Friday evening.

It is unclear at this point how the voting will work. Each panel could take a separate vote, or they could take one mega-vote as a joint committee.

O'Malley said yesterday that he's still a few votes short of passage on the House floor, though he said that members will have to make their decisions soon. There are about a dozen lawmakers, including a handful of Republicans, who have not publicly said how they'll vote.