Fifty-four percent of Maryland voters in a new poll support the state’s pending legalization of same-sex marriage, according to Marylanders for Marriage Equality, the statewide group advocating LGBT rights. The poll results were revealed in today’s Baltimore Sun.
The poll, conducted by Hart Research Associates, surveyed 504 participants and found that only 40 percent would vote to oppose the same-sex marriage measure on November’s ballot. Support of marriage equality has increased since March, when a poll found 51 percent in favor compared to 43 percent opposed. The margin for error for both polls was 4.5 percent.
African-Americans, a large bloc of the state’s Democratic voters, are evenly divided, with 44 percent in favor and 45 percent opposed.
The Maryland legislature passed the state’s marriage equality bill in February 2012, but opponents of the law gathered enough signatures to place the issue before voters in November. No voter referendum has ever succeeded in enacting same-sex marriage, though supporters in the Free State believe they have a good shot at stopping the losing streak.
Three other states will put same-sex marriage up for a vote this November: Washington, whose legislature legalized it in February; Maine, where voters overturned marriage equality in 2009; and Minnesota, where voters will be asked if they support a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.
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