Backing for Amendment 3 isn't weakening

Monson said earlier polls that indicated strong support for the overall amendment, despite weaker support for its second sentence, indicate that Don't Ament has managed to raise "doubts about that second part, but that's not enough to undermine the overriding issue in voters' minds."

Amendment supporters got a boost recently when The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issued a statement saying it "favors measures that define marriage as the union of a man and a woman and that do not confer legal status on any other sexual relationship."

Rep. LaVar Christensen, R-Draper, the amendment's House sponsor and co-chairman of the Constitutional Defense of Marriage Alliance campaign for the amendment, said the strong support for the measure indicates that the people of Utah are willing to "stand by their traditional belief.

"I think it just shows that the underlying principals behind Amendment 3 are sound and solid," Christensen said. "I would expect a strong majority to vote in favor of Amendment 3."

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