Prop. 8 Wording
Change Good News for Opponents

The California secretary of state has changed language in the ballot initiative that would ban same-sex marriage in California.

Proposition 8 would overturn the state's supreme court ruling that it is unconstitutional to deny same-sex couples in California the right to marry. The original wording of the November ballot initiative read, "[Proposition 8] amends the California Constitution to provide that only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California."

The new language says that the initiative "Changes California Constitution to eliminate right of same-sex couples to marry." It further explains that banning gay marriage could prevent the state from gaining tens of millions of dollars in potential sales tax revenue.

Some activists think the language change, which spells out the removal of the right for same-sex couples to marry, could help to defeat the measure, according to Waymon Hudson at Bilerico.com. He notes that some polls have shown that changing the language to denote the removal of rights can add up to 10 percentage points to the "no" votes.

A Field Poll from July 18 shows that 51% of Californians are against the ban, 42% favor it, and 7% are undecided. Additionally, 63% of Democrats said they would vote against the ban, while 68% of Republicans said they would vote for it. The poll was the second consecutive study to show that a majority of Californians -- a very slim majority -- would vote for marriage equality. Those additional 10 points could only help. (The Advocate)