Dominant Cue Givers and Voting on Ballot Propositions.

The 2004 elections placed a new issue on the American political agenda: gay marriage. After the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court allowed same-sex marriages and President Bush announced his position on the issue in his 2004 State of the Union Address with a request for a constitutional amendment to define marriage as between a man and a woman, the issue moved to the state level. During 2004, thirteen states, including Utah, voted on changes to their own state constitutions. This paper uses exit poll data from the 2004 KBYU/Utah Colleges Exit Poll to explore the dynamics of public opinion and vote choice on this issue. In particular, we examine the role that elite cues had on public support for Amendment 3. Studies of public opinion on initiatives and referenda show that elite endorsements play an important role in helping voters learn about the issue and in persuading voters to support or oppose the initiative. The exit poll specifically included questions asking voters to identify the stances of important statewide candidates and institutions in the political environment. This paper describes the characteristics of a dominant cue giver and examines its effects on vote choice. The results indicate that some endorsements carry more weight in predicting how some voters behave toward this controversial issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]