A new poll has found that over half of voters in the US state of Arizona are in favour of allowing same-sex couples to marry.

The poll found that 55% of Arizonans were in favour of equal marriage, with 35% opposed and 10% were unsure.

Voters most in favour of such a measure were women, Latinos, liberals, moderates, Independents, Democrats, and voters under the age of 55.

Republicans in the state were divided over the issue, with 36% in favour and 53% opposed. The poll found that out of those who identify as conservative, 41% supported and 51% opposed equal marriage.

The state has since 1996, defined marriage as exclusively between one man and one woman, and in 2008, voters approved a constitutional amendment to define it as such.

The amendment reads that “only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in this state.”

The poll, released Tuesday, was conducted between April 3 and April 16, and is based on 700 telephone interviews statewide, including 438 registered voters.

The survey’s overall margin of error is plus or minus 3.8 percent.

A southern Arizona City Council was recently threatened with a lawsuit by the state Attorney General’s office for passing legislation to allow civil unions for same-sex couples, and has put the legislation on hold to tweak it in order for it to fit with the state’s ban on equal marriage.

The council of Bisbee, a former mining town now populated by a large number of artists and retirees, voted 5-2 in April to pass legislation allowing civil unions between couples of any gender.

A Mormon Arizona Congressman Matt Salmon, last month said that, despite his own son being gay, his stance on equal marriage hadn’t “evolved” for him too support it.

The US state of Minnesota is to become the twelfth US state to legalise equal marriage, as its Senate yesterday voted in favour of a measure to make same-sex marriage legal.