Splits Over Prop. 8 Vote

JAKE HENSHAW • Desert Sun Sacramento Bureau • December 4, 2008

Voters were most sharply divided along political and religious lines when they went to the polls in November to decide the fate of same-sex marriage in California, a new poll released today shows.


But the survey also found age, education, ethnic and racial differences in the voting that led to approval of Proposition 8, which allows marriage only between a man and a woman.

The constitutional amendment passed 52 percent to 48 percent, but 77 percent of Republican voters supported it while 65 percent of Democrats opposed it.

Evangelicals or born-again Christians lined up even more solidly behind the measure, with 85 percent supporting it compared to 42 percent of those who didn't identify with this group. Evangelicals comprised 24 percent of the 2,003 voters surveyed as representative of the Californians who went to the polls.

In answer to a separate question, 47 percent of voters said they favored gay marriage, 48 percent opposed it, and five percent were unsure.

The poll was conducted Nov. 5-16 and had a margin of error of plus or minus two percent.