By Kim Kaunian, WPRO News
The National Organization for Marriage, Rhode Island Chapter, or NOMRI, released the results of a telephone poll Tuesday, showing that most Rhode Islanders favor the idea of putting same-sex marriage on the ballot.
According to the survey of 401 registered voters, 74 percent said they believed the “definition of marriage should be decided by the voters of Rhode Island,” versus letting the General Assembly make the call.
Those polled also expressed their opinion that the economy should be the legislature’s priority, with 55 percent saying the same-sex marriage issue should be secondary to the economy.
According to the polling data, the bulk of those polled were women (54 percent) over the age of 50 (71 percent) and were Catholic or another denomination of Christian (71 percent).
The poll said those surveyed identified themselves mainly as Democrats (40 percent) or Independents (40 percent), with only 7 percent saying they considered themselves to be Republican.
A Public Policy Polling survey from late January found that the majority of Rhode Islanders, 57 percent, support the legalization of same-sex marriage. NOMRI's data did not cover whether or not those polled were supporters of marriage equality.
The NOMRI poll also found that the majority of those surveyed thought that Governor Chafee was doing a “fair” or “poor" job (66 percent). Fifty-three percent of those polled also said they believed the state was headed in the “wrong direction.”
