CONCORD, N.H. (AP) New Hampshire residents oppose same-sex marriage but look more favorably on civil unions.

Fifty-five percent of the 600 people interviewed opposed allowing same-sex couples to marry, compared with 35 percent in favor. Ten percent weren’t sure.

Asked their opinion of civil unions, 44 percent favored allowing it. Forty percent opposed civil unions and 16 percent weren’t sure.

Research 2000 conducted the telephone poll for the Concord Monitor Dec. 18-20. The margin of error was plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Those questioned identified themselves as regular voters.

Two proposals for the legislative session that begins next week would extend the legal rights that married couples have to same-sex couples in civil unions.

“It’s good timing to discuss this, in large part because of the changes in the Legislature,” which recently switched from Republican to Democratic control for the first time in 130 years, “but also because we’ve seen what has happened in Massachusetts,” said Rep. James Splaine, the sponsor of one bill.

The Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled in 2004 that same-sex couples had the right to marry. Splaine, D-Portsmouth, said the ruling has had none of the negative consequences predicted by its critics.

The poll numbers reflect attitudes similar to those in Vermont seven years ago before that state became the first to create civil unions and extend the rights and benefits of marriage but not the actual name “marriage” to same-sex couples, pollster Del Ali told the Monitor. Ali’s Maryland-based firm conducted similar polls in Vermont in the late 1990s.

“The numbers are almost identical to where Vermont was,” said Ali, who called New Hampshire voters “a little more tolerant on this issue” than Americans in general.

Neighboring Maine has a “defense of marriage” law that defines marriage as between one man and one woman.

But Maine, whose gay rights law took effect one year ago, has a domestic partner registry, which gives registered domestic partners legal status similar to that of married people with respect to matters of probate, guardianships, conservatorships, inheritance, protection from abuse and related matters.

In New Hampshire, Splaine’s bill would let same-sex couples register “domestic unions” that would give them the same rights as married couples. Splaine said his long-term goal is to have such unions recognized as marriages, but he does not think the state or the Legislature would support that now.

State law now bars same-sex couples from marrying. In 2004, the Legislature barred the state from recognizing same-sex marriages performed elsewhere after the Massachusetts court ruling.

Gov. John Lynch, a Democrat, opposes same-sex marriage “but thinks we need to make sure the rights of all of our citizens are protected,” spokesperson Colin Manning said.

Lynch supported domestic-partnership benefits for employees of the state university system when he was a trustee, and he hopes to extend similar benefits to state workers in their next contract, Manning said.

This session, Lynch favors more study of civil unions, Manning said. He said Lynch believes an earlier study committee did a poor job.

Sen. Peter Burling, D-Cornish, said he personally feels that it’s discriminatory to deny same-sex couples the legal rights that married couples have. But he said he worries that a civil unions debate would divert energy and attention from “broad-spectrum issues” such as the state budget and overhauling the school funding system.

Rep. James MacKay predicted that same-sex unions could pass this session, however.

“It seems to me that everybody who’s in a committed, dedicated relationship [should] have the same rights as health insurance and protection of property and certain issues around death that are pretty complicated,” said MacKay, a Concord Republican. “And I feel that that probably could pass, and I think the governor would sign it.”

Rep. Mike Whalley, the House Republican leader, said he didn’t know if Republican legislators would adopt a stance on the issue.

“When and if we take a position on it, and I’m not suggesting we would, it would not be based on polling,” Whalley said.