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According to Matier and Ross in the SF Chronicle, a defeat of Prop 8 at the election voting booth may be due to the rewording of the initiative by California Attorney General Jerry Brown..

It was Brown's office that decided on the final ballot description for Proposition 8, the proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay and lesbian weddings.

And by changing the way the measure was framed in its title and summary, Brown just might have tipped the balance in what looks to be a close election.

Here's the story:

Prop. 8 asks voters to affirm that "only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California" - a concept that voters overwhelmingly backed when they approved Proposition 22 in 2000.

Voters still favor the traditional definition of marriage, 49 to 47 percent, according to the most recent Public Policy Institute of California poll.

However, in the wake of the state Supreme Court decision in May legalizing same-sex marriage, Brown worded Prop. 8's ballot description to specify that it "eliminates the right of same-sex couples to marry."

The proponents' original title for Prop. 8 was "Limit on Marriage." What voters see on their ballot pamphlet, thanks to Brown, is, "Eliminates Right of Same-Sex Couples to Marry."

Prop. 8 supporters accused Brown of playing politics and went to court.

They lost. The new language went on the ballot, and pollsters said support for the ban dropped by eight points - with the most recent PPIC survey showing 52 percent of likely voters now opposing the ban.

"It all depends on how you ask the question," said Sacramento pollster Jim Moore of J. Moore Methods.