A year before Minnesotans decide on a
constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage in the state,
two polls find residents divided on the issue.
According to a statewide poll by St.
Cloud State University, more people oppose than support the
amendment.
Forty-seven percent of respondents said
they do not support amending the state's constitution to define
marriage as a heterosexual union, while 44 percent said they favored
the amendment. Nine percent refused to answer.
The school's political science
department contacted 626 Minnesota residents by phone between October
16 – 27 for the survey, which has a margin of error of plus or
minus 5 percentage points.
Fifty-seven percent of those who said
religion was important in their lives favored amending the
constitution, while twenty-nine percent who said religion was not
important in their lives opposed the amendment.
Meanwhile, the statewide Star
Tribune Minnesota Poll of 807 adults conducted between November
2-3 arrived at the opposite conclusion, with a slim majority (48%) in
favor of the amendment and 43 percent opposed.
Both surveys are within their margins
of error, leaving the state nearly evenly divided on the issue.