Support for a constitutional amendment
in North Carolina which would ban gay marriage continues to decline,
a poll has found.
Voters will decide on Amendment One
during North Carolina's May 8 primary. The constitutional amendment
would bar the state from recognizing the relationships of gay and
lesbian couples with marriage, civil unions and possibly domestic
partnerships.
A Public
Polling Policy poll released Tuesday of 1,139 likely voters found
support for the ban at its lowest since October.
According to the poll, 54 percent of
voters support the amendment, while 40 remain opposed. The
pollster's first poll gave the amendment a 27 point advantage (61 –
34%), which has now been cut by nearly half.
“There is some reason to think a huge
upset in two weeks is within the realm of possibility,” PPP's Tom
Jensen said in reporting the group's findings.
“When voters are informed that the
proposed amendment would preclude both marriage and civil unions for
gay couples only 38% continue to support it with 46% in opposition.
Voters obviously will be more tuned into the amendment debate over
the final two weeks of the campaign than they have been to date,
particularly as the against side's TV ads hit the air, and it seems
quite possible that as voters become more and more informed about the
amendment they will continue to move more and more against it.”
(Related: Opponents
of North Carolina gay marriage ban release TV ads.)
Added Dean Debnam, president of PPP:
“Passage of the marriage amendment is looking like less and less of
a sure thing. The more voters learn about it the less inclined they
are to support it.”