A poll released Wednesday reported a
four percent drop in support for allowing gay couples to marry in
Michigan.
The
poll, conducted by Lansing-based EPIC-MRA exclusively for the
Free Press and WXYZ-TV, asked 600 likely Michigan voters how
they would vote on allowing same-sex marriage. Forty-seven percent
said they would vote “yes,” while 46 percent said they would vote
“no.”
A similar poll conducted last year
found a slim majority (51%) of respondents in support of marriage
equality.
In March, a federal judge struck down
Michigan's marriage ban. An appeals court in Cincinnati will hear
arguments in the case on August 6.
(Related: Appeals
court to hear arguments in Michigan gay marriage case on August 6.)
In a blog post, the National
Organization for Marriage (NOM), the nation's most vociferous
opponent of marriage equality, said it was not surprised by the
poll's findings.
“[T]hese poll results don't surprise
us,” the
group wrote. “Overwhelmingly, in the majority of cases when
voters have been given the opportunity to vote on marriage, they have
expressed the view that marriage should be defined as the union of
one man and one woman.”
Of course, a majority of those votes
were cast a decade ago, and most polls, including Wednesday's survey,
report overwhelming support among adults under 34.