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Study Shows Gay Marriage Campaigns Might be Wasting Millions
 Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund sponsored a study prepared by Patrick Egan, a New York University professor and public opinion expert, which analyzed 167 pre-election surveys on 32 ballot measures since 1988. He found that people usually do not change in their opinions on gay marriage or domestic partnership during the course of a campaign.The study shows that expensive campaigns for and against legal recognition of gay couples don’t do much to sway voter opinion. The end result of the study shows that if you want to change hearts and minds, it has to be done before the ballot campaign season begins.
"This underscores the simple reality that in the heat of a ballot campaign, it's very difficult to move someone on marriage equality -- voters are being hit with messages from both sides," says Geoff Korrs, executive director of Equality California, in a press release. "As a result, it is essential that we have majority support for marriage equality before the final months of a campaign."
The report also found that polls consistently underestimated the amount of voters who would support bans on legal recognition of same-sex couples. "The share of voters projected to support a ban on same-sex marriage is typically about three percentage points less than the actual level of support on election day," the release stated.
Via SFWeekly.com
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