The nation’s largest voting block appears to be pretty comfortable with openly gay political candidates, according to new a poll.

Public Policy Polling finds 71 percent of Independent voters say they could vote for an openly gay political candidate.  In fact, 8 percent said that fact would make them more likely to vote for the candidate, while 63 percent said a candidate’s homosexuality wouldn’t make a difference to them.  Just 29 percent said it would make them less likely to vote for a candidate.

Among Republicans, the poll found 53 percent would be less likely to vote for a candidate they knew to be  gay, with 38 percent saying it wouldn’t make a difference and 9 percent saying they’d be more likely to vote for a gay candidate.

The PPP poll was conducted among 1,071 Republican and Independent voters January 13-15, 2012, for the HBO show “Real Time with Bill Maher.”  The poll did not survey Democrats, nor did pollsters ask specifically about lesbian, bisexual or transgender candidates. Full results are here.