A majority — 55 percent — of registered voters in New Jersey agree that all the penalties related to possessing a small amount of marijuana should be eliminated, according to a new Rutgers-Eagleton Poll. Republicans and conservatives disagree, and a majority still oppose complete legalization of use and sales.

It is a depressing statement on the state of our current democracy that any easily implemented policy change like moving cannabis from schedule I to schedule III so it can be legally prescribed by a doctor still hasn’t happened despite poll after poll showing the American public overwhelmingly supports the change.

Although majority support for marijuana legalization is a good sign for this Colorado campaign, it should be noted that in 2010 the California marijuana legalization measure, Proposition 19, was ahead in early polling but ended up losing narrowly on election day. This Colorado effort should be in slightly better shape than Prop 19 was because they are trying to put the issue on the ballot in a Presidential Election year. Presidential elections tend to see much higher turn out among young voters who strongly support legalization.

A new poll from Rasmussen finds the American people nearly evenly divided on whether or not to legalize and tax marijuana to help the government bring in new revenue.

This poll should be a helpful boost to Governor Dan Malloy (D), who is actively pushing both to legalize medical marijuana and reduce the penalty for minor cannabis possession to a small fine. With a state legislature also controlled by Democrats, there is a good chance both reforms will happen during Malloy’s first term.

One of my first observations about the defeat of California’s Proposition 19 was how important turnout demographics were to the final outcome.

While I will need to wait for official final turnout numbers from the California Secretary of State to determine what impact Prop 19 had on youth turnout, it is clear from the available data that the initiative didn’t bring out young voters in the levels they normally do for presidential elections (as opposed to midterms).

Proposition 19, which would legalize and regulate production and distribution of marijuana in California, is trailing slightly in the two most recent polls from Field and PPP. While the polling is still relatively close, this is not a good sign. For Prop 19 to pass, there will need to be a very large turnout among supporters and young voters who are not being included in the pollsters’ “likely voter” models.

Americans’ support for marijuana legalization is the highest it has ever been, according to the latest Gallup poll. Currently 46 percent of Americans believe the use of marijuana should be legal, while 50 percent think it should stay illegal. The American people are now roughly evenly split on the question. The issue of marijuana legalization has gone from a once fringe position to something solidly mainstream. Most importantly, the trend line shows accelerating movement in the direction of greater acceptance for legalization.

This is not a good sign for Proposition 19. The California initiative to legalize and tax marijuana has lost a small amount of support in the latest SurveyUSA poll. For the first time in their polling, the “lean no” side outnumbers the “lean yes” side by two points.

Yes on Proposition 19 has just released a set of internal numbers for polling they conducted last week, which compared responses given to live interviewers versus automated telephone polling. Interestingly, there is a huge divide between the level of support expressed for Prop 19 with the two methodologies. They find that if an individual is responding only to a computer program, they are much more likely to express support for Prop 19.