As you may be aware, years ago I earned my crust in the market research biz. It’s an interesting profession—reviled by those who are called away from their dinner tables by interviewers but much prized by politicians and product marketers (dubious recommendations, I suppose…). The statistician was a person ensconced in a hidden-away office in the corner who cooked up ways of statistically sampling populations so that the surveys that resulted from the polling were representative of the entire population.
A gentleman named Nate Silver has done a statistical analysis of the situation for gay marriage bans, with a special concentration on the state of Maine, as its vote is coming up in a month or so. His conclusions will give hope to those who are working to defeat the ban.