Opinion: Californians say no more gay marriage votes: Times/USC poll

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

A majority of California voters opposes putting the issue of gay marriage back on the ballot for another referendum.

According to a just-released survey by the new polling team of The Times and the University of Southern California, a small majority of Californians favors the right of gay couples to marry.

But a far larger proportion of the 1,500 registered voters in the new poll opposes putting the issue back on another statewide ballot next year. This week Maine became the 31st state where voters, in effect, defeated the idea of gay marriage in a statewide vote.

Not surprisingly, same-sex-marriage views were sharply polarized by political party; 66% of Democrats thought it should be legal and 71% of Republicans opposed it. Nonpartisan voters were less enthusiastic than Democrats but still backed it, 59% to 34%.

Overall, the smallest majority of 51% of California voters favored marriage rights for same-sex couples and 43% opposed them, according to the survey, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.6 percentage points.

However, a surprisingly large number of Californians -- almost 60% -- were certain that they did not want the issue revisited in 2010, just one election cycle after it last hit the ballot.

-- Andrew Malcolm

No margin of error here. One-hundred percent of those clicking here get Twitter alerts of each new Ticket item. Or follow us @latimestot And we’re also available over on Facebook regardless of gender.