A majority of New Jersey voters say gay
marriage should be legalized.
According to a Rutgers-Eagleton poll of
914 registered voters released Tuesday, 54 percent of respondents
support gay marriage, and 35 percent oppose it.
However, a majority also say the issue
should be put up for a vote.
Fifty-three percent of respondents said
they support Governor Chris Christie's call for voters to decide the
issue at the ballot box. Supporters of marriage equality have
rejected the idea, arguing that civil rights should never be put up
for a vote.
“It may be that given several polls
showing majority support among voters, supporters of same-sex
marriage think it would win in November,” pollster David Redlawsk,
a political science professor at Rutgers University, said in a
statement. “But in the face of a likely intensive campaign from
opponents, this could be wishful thinking.”
The survey was released a day after the
New Jersey Senate voted in favor of legalizing gay marriage by a
wider margin than expected, and two days before an expected vote in
the Assembly.
Christie has said he would veto the
bill if it reached his desk.