Medical marijuana will be ushered into use and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio will be re-elected if a University of North Florida statewide poll holds true.
The school’s Public Opinion Research Lab this morning released findings on the two issues, with medical marijuana overwhelmingly being approved and receiving the OK by both Democrats and Republicans.
Of the 668 respondents, 77 percent supported medical marijuana and 18 percent were against.
Among party lines, Democrats supported it at an 87 percent rate, while 65 percent of Republicans approved of the measure. Respondents with no party affiliation supported it at an 83 percent clip.
State law requires an overall 60 percent approval to succeed on the Nov. 8 ballot.
Michael Binder, UNF research lab director, said a last-minute campaign opposing the idea was credited with sinking a similar amendment in 2014, but voters this time are on the verge of passing it.
Another question surveyed the voters’ preference on marijuana intent, with 45 percent saying it should only be for medicinal purposes compared to 40 percent saying it should be legal for recreational use.
The remaining 15 percent said it shouldn’t be legal at all.
The lab also polled likely voters on the Senate battle between Rubio, a Republican, and Democrat Patrick Murphy, with the incumbent holding the edge.
Of 667 respondents, Rubio received 48 percent to Murphy’s 41 percent. Another 10 percent did not know, while 1 percent said they’d vote for someone else.
Rubio had both higher favorable (49 percent) and unfavorable (43 percent) ratings than Murphy (35 percent and 29 percent, respectively), yet it was the name recognition disparity that Binder said was “most startling.”
Of those polled, 21 percent said they had never heard of Murphy compared to just 2 percent for Rubio.
A deeper look shows Rubio fares considerably better with men (52 to 38 percent) and had a slim lead with women (44 to 43 percent).
The UNF research lab conducted the poll Sept. 27-Oct. 4 with 696 registered likely voters. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.
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