Poll: More Minnesotans oppose marriage amendment
A new poll shows more Minnesota voters oppose a constitutional amendment to define marriage as between a man and a woman than support it.
Roughly 49 percent of registered Minnesota voters oppose the effort compared to the 43 percent that support it, according to Democratic-leaning firm Public Policy Polling.
The latest numbers demonstrate a shift in voter sentiment among independents since January when the firm found that more people supported the amendment than opposed it, said Dustin Ingalls, who is assistant to Public Policy Polling's director.
"Independents have moved from being 50 to 40 for it to being against it, pretty strongly so," Ingalls said. "Really the entirely movement has been with independent voters."
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Meanwhile, Republicans and Democrats remain solidly for and against the amendment, Ingalls said.
Other recent polls have shown most Minnesotans support the amendment or that Minnesotans are effectively split on the issue.
Meanwhile, the same PPP poll shows 58 percent of voters support a constitutional amendment to require voters to show identification at the polls while 34 percent of voters oppose the amendment.
Other poll highlights:
- Gov. Mark Dayton's approval rating is 49 percent, while Republicans in the Legislature have a 21 percent approval rating.
- Legislative Democrats lead a generic ballot 48-36 percent, in part due to support from independent voters.
- Voters are divided on the Vikings stadium deal with 44 percent supporting it and 41 percent opposing it.
The poll surveyed 973 Minnesota voters between May 31 and June 3. The margin of error is 3.1 percentage points. Read more about the poll here.
Here's some reaction from Minnesotans United for All Families, a group opposing the amendment:
"Today's poll shows there is a conversation happening across this state about what marriage means and how this amendment would limit the freedom to marry for gay and lesbian couples. The more people talk about this, the more likely they are to vote no in November, and this poll demonstrates that more and more Minnesotans are coming to the conclusion that this is not the right thing to do for our state."
We will update this story with reaction from Minnesota for Marriage, the group supporting the amendment, when it's available.
Here's reaction from Minnesota for Marriage communications director, Chuck Darrell:
"We've been polling the amendment for over a year and our most recent poll shows the race unchanged with support for the amendment in the mid‐fifties. And, every time the voters get a chance to vote on marriage, they affirm marriage as between one man and one woman. We have a lot of work ahead of us, but we expect Minnesota to be the 32nd state to define marriage as between one man and one woman in its constitution."