"I think there's some merit in waiting for the people to catch up with the concept," Eyer said. Meanwhile, she predicted, "real people will suffer real harm as a result of this."

Sen. Chris Buttars, R-West Jordan, Amendment 3 co-sponsor and co-chairman of the Constitutional Defense of Marriage Alliance, predicted the amendment, if challenged in federal court, will "pass constitutional muster. We'll be fine."

Nebraska's amendment is under challenge in federal court, and a judge's decision to overturn Louisiana's amendment, which passed earlier this year, is being appealed.

In Utah, those on both sides of the debate have predicted that lawsuits will result from the amendment's passage.

Kelly Patterson, director of the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy at Brigham Young University, predicted that Utahns haven't seen the last of this issue.

The issue will likely be decided nationally, Patterson said, by the U.S. Supreme Court, or in the form of an amendment to the U.S. Constitution. A federal marriage amendment failed to move forward in either the House or Senate this summer.

Quin Monson, assistant political science professor at Brigham Young University, said he was impressed with Don't Amend's "well-organized, articulate" message against the amendment.

"It's hard to fault their effort in the campaign," he said. "They did it very well. It's just a hard sell in this state."

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E-mail: dbulkeley@desnews.com