Final Weekend Poll Gives Amendment One Advantage

Those of us in Virginia who were relegated to 4th class citizenship status in 2006 when the Marshall-Newman Amendment wrote anti-gay discrimination into Virginia's Constitution have watched closely as the Christofascist/GOP coalition has launched its effort to write the same type of rank bigotry into North Carolina's constitution.  Sadly, the latest poll being reported by the News and Observer is not comforting - it shows Amendment One leading and possibly headed towards passage.  It makes me feel almost physically sick and I cannot help but view Christianist as a force of great evil in this country.   Of course, polls and who actually goes to the polls and votes are not always one and the same, so it remains absolutely crucial that every opponent of Amendment One go out and vote tomorrow.  Here are highlights from the latest coverage:

A final poll of likely North Carolina voters conducted over the weekend continues to give a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage and civil unions an easy margin of victory in Tuesday’s election while the Democratic contest for governor is tightening.

The referendum holds a 16-point advantage, 55 percent in favor and 39 percent against, according to the Public Policy Polling survey, a left-leaning Raleigh-based firm. The numbers shifted little in the final week as big-names on either side of the debate – Rev. Billy Graham for and former President Bill Clinton against – made final pleas to persuade voters.

Many voters still don’t understand what the amendment would accomplish, pollster Tom Jensen said, noting that a majority of North Carolinians support some legal recognition for same-sex couples. “Opponents of the amendment had an uphill battle in convincing voters that it was anything other than a referendum on gay marriage, even though it does go a lot further than that” by forbidding civil unions and domestic partnerships, he said.

Jensen, whose firm worked for the anti-amendment campaign, believes the vote could get even more support, possibly as high as 59 percent.The vote brought a half-million people to the polls to vote early, exceeding even the huge jump in voting for the 2008 Democratic presidential primary between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

If Amendment One gets more than 57% of the vote, then North Carolina will prove itself to be more bigoted than Virginia - something that takes some real effort.