Civitas Poll: Majority of Voters Support Marriage Amendment

Raleigh, N.C. – A majority, 62 percent, of North Carolina voters say they support a constitutional amendment that establishes marriage between one man and woman as the only recognized domestic legal union in the state.

Sixty-two percent of respondents said they support a constitutional amendment that says marriage between one man and one woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in the state.  Thirty-one percent said they oppose it and seven percent are undecided or do not know.

The amendment finds bipartisan backing as 79 percent of Republicans, 55 percent of unaffiliated voters, and 53 percent of Democrats support a constitutional amendment on marriage.  Additionally, voters in all age demographics support the amendment except for those age 18-25 (31 percent to 69 percent oppose).

“While turnout in a May primary election is often difficult to predict, this amendment appears to have broad support,” said Civitas Institute President Francis De Luca. “And while other polling has shown different results, it is important to remember that voters will be voting on the actual wording used in our poll, not from a list of options.”

The Civitas Poll is the only regular live-caller poll of critical issues facing North Carolina.  For more information on Civitas polling see http://www.nccivitas.org/category/poll/.

Full Text of Question:

“Do you support or oppose a constitutional amendment that says: ‘Marriage between one man and one woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this state.’”

Total Support – 62%

Total Oppose – 31%

Strongly Support – 57%

Somewhat Support – 5%

Somewhat Oppose – 7%

Strongly Oppose – 24%

Undecided/Don’t Know – 7%

For the full results and crosstabs, click here.

This poll of 600 likely 2012 general election voters in North Carolina was conducted September 22-25, 2011 by National Research, Inc. of Holmdel, NJ.  All respondents were part of a fully representative sample of likely 2012 general election voters in North Carolina.  For purposes of this study, voters interviewed had to have voted in at least one of the past three general elections (2006, 2008, 2010) or be newly registered to vote since November 2, 2010.

The confidence interval associated with a sample of this size is such that: 95 percent of the time, results from 600 interviews (registered voters) will be within +-4% of the “True Values.” True Values refer to the results obtained if it were possible to interview every person in North Carolina who had voted in at least one of the past three general elections or is newly registered since November 2, 2010.

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