Politics & Government
MN Marriage Amendment=Majority Support in Only One Patch City
Voters in the mostly suburban cities that Patch covers were more opposed to the proposed gay-marriage ban than Minnesota voters generally.
Here's how residents in a cross section of Minnesota cities, including Roseville, voted on the ballot measure that would have defined marriage as only between one man and one woman to the state Constitution.
Statewide, the ballot measure failed to exceed the 50 percent level of support it needed in the Nov. 6, 2012 general election. It got 47.53 percent, according to unofficial results from all but two of Minnesota's 4,102 precincts' results.
Taken together, people in cities served by Patch—mostly in the Twin Cities suburbs—rejected the marriage amendment in greater proportion (61.21 percent) than Minnesotans taken as a whole (52.47 percent).
Find out what's happening in Rosevillewith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Support for the amendment in places covered by Patch ranged from 14.51 percent in Southwest Minneapolis to 54.23 percent in St. Michael—the only Patch city where a majority of voters backed the measure.
In Roseville, 40.5 percent of the voters backed the amendment while 59.4 opposed it.
Find out what's happening in Rosevillewith free, real-time updates from Patch.
This fall, the Marriage Amendment sparked plenty of discussion in Roseville. In late summer, the Roseville Council, following the lead of the town's Human Rights Commission, voted unanimously to oppose the proposed constitutional amendment.
On the other hand, the student senate at Northwestern College in Roseville didn't take any official stand on the amendment but did pass a resolution stating it supported the traditional practice of marriage as being between one man and one woman. (Northwestern is a private Christian liberal arts college.)
Even without Southwest Minneapolis' urban neighborhoods where opposition ran deep, the combined vote from the rest of the Minnesota cities with Patch websites registered 59.54 percent against the marriage amendment.
Do your views align with how your city voted?
Lake Minnetonka Patch covers several cities, including Minnetrista, Tonka Bay, Wayzata, Mound, Shorewood, Orono, Spring Park, Deephaven, Long Lake and Excelsior.
Stillwater Patch covers Stillwater, Lake Elmo and Oak Park Heights.
Northfield has one precinct in Dakota County and the rest in Rice County.
Southwest Minneapolis Patch covers these precincts:
- Ward 8: Precincts 2, 6, 7
- Ward 10: Precincts 3–6
- Ward 11: Precincts 1–3
- Ward 13: Precincts 1–9
NOTE: These are unofficial figures until canvassing boards verify them. They are the figures available on Nov. 9, 2012, but they may change as election workers revise estimates of total ballots cast, and tallies of ballots with Yes, No, or no vote at all for the amendment.
Here are the Minnesota Secretary of State's definitions for the columns in the table above:
- Estimated Percent of YES: YES divided by Estimated Total Number of Voters, displayed as a percentage
- Yes: Actual YES votes cast
- No: Actual NO votes cast
- Estimated Blanks: Estimated total number of voters minus Yes votes and No votes
- Estimated Total Number of Voters: Calculated using votes for U.S. President & Vice President or actual statistics
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