Supporters and advocates of marijuana are going into the final weeks of the 2016 campaign with the wind at their backs as the latest polling shows legalization measures are currently favored by voters in all five states where legalizing marijuana has made it onto to the ballot. This is something of a reversal from just a month ago when the most current polling info had shown voters cautious of legalization bills in Massachusetts and Arizona. But the margins of support aren’t huge in any state, meaning that the contests could still swing either way.
Polling ballot issues is a complicated business, all the more so with marijuana-related problems, where responses can be heavily motivated by manipulating the language when asking questions. So in the same state, different polls with different words used to ask questions can produce entirely different results even if answered at similar times.
In Arizona, a late-August Arizona Republic/Morrison/Cronkite News poll of 784 registered voters discovered that 50 percent of people stood behind marijuana legalization, 40 percent opposed it, and 10 percent remain uncertain. That result is distinctly at odds with a July poll of likely voters displaying that only 39 percent stated they favored the measure.
In California, a post-debate Survey USA poll of 751 potential voters discovered that Proposition 64, which would legalize, tax and regulate the sale of recreational marijuana, is backed by 52 percent of the electorate and disliked by 41 percent, with 6 percent uncertain. This is a lower margin than some other recent polls there, which have pegged support at 60 percent or more.
Across the country in Massachusetts, the marijuana legalization bill enjoys a more than 50 percent support among potential voters, according to a recent WBZ-UMASS Amherst poll of 700 likely voters.
Forty percent stand against the vote, while another 7 percent are hesitant. That’s also a turnaround from an earlier poll of 900 registered voters, which found only 41 percent supported the measure.
Up the coast in Maine, a late September poll of 505 possible voters discovered that 53 percent are in favor for the legalization measure, 38 percent were not in favor to it and 10 percent were not sure. A poll fielded last week of 500 potential voters in Nevada found the legalization bill in the state is leading with 57 percent support, in contrast to 33 percent opposing it.
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