Three recent polls of likely Colorado voters have found that Democrats are substantially more likely than Republicans to support a proposed ban on the use of affirmative-action preferences by public colleges and other state and local agencies, according to The Denver Post.

Moreover, two of the polls—issued by the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute on June 26th and July 24th—found that Hispanic voters were even more likely to support the measure than white ones. And the July 24th Quinnipiac poll found women more likely to support the measure, known as Amendment 46, than men.

Opponents of Amendment 46 argued to the Denver Post, however, that the polls’ results mainly reflect people’s confusion over the wording of the ballot proposal and poll questions based on it. The Quinnipiac poll questions, for example, summarized the measure as saying “the state shall not discriminate against or grant preferential treatment to any group or individual on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of public employment, public contracting, or public education.” Defenders of affirmative-action preferences have long alleged that such wording conceals how the measures actually outlaw policies aimed at remedying past discrimination.

Colorado is one of two states where such measures appear likely to get on the November ballot unless various court challenges against them prevail. Nebraska’s secretary of state announced last week that the backers of such a measure there had gathered enough signatures to put it before voters this fall.

In a third state, Arizona, the secretary of state declared last week that a similar measure would not go before voters there because too many of the petition signatures on its behalf were invalid. The backers of the measure say they may challenge his determination, however, if they can show that a large share of the signatures declared invalid actually were legitimate.