(Boston, Mass.) Massachusetts voters support Gov. Deval Patrick on extending same-sex marriage rights.

Last week, Patrick signed legislation allowing out-of-state same-sex couples to marry in the Bay State. The bill repealed a 1913 law that said marriage licenses could not be issued to couples whose weddings would not be recognized in their home states.

The poll, by Suffolk University for a local television station, found that 59 percent agreed that same-sex couples should be allowed to legally marry in Massachusetts, even if their home state prohibits gay marriage, while 37 percent disagreed.

The survey was conducted Thursday, July 31, 2008, through Sunday, Aug. 3, 2008.  The margin of error on the study of 400 is plus or minus 4.90 percent at a 95 percent level of confidence.  All respondents from the statewide survey were registered voters in Massachusetts

When the highest court in Massachusetts struck down the state ban on same-sex marriage in 2003, then-Gov. Mitt Romney (R) dusted off the 1913 law, threatening to charge local clerks if they issued marriage licenses to out-of-state same-sex couples.

The old law was originally passed when interracial marriage was legal in Massachusetts, but not in most other parts of the country.

When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned state bans on interracial marriage, the Massachusetts law fell into disuse.

While gay and lesbian couples in the Bay State were allowed to marry, the old law effectively closed the state border to couples from elsewhere in the country.