Inside Report (5)

Political pundits wrote off passage of the Equal Rights Amendment long ago. The National Organization for Women didn't.

Armed with a recent Harris poll that shows 63 percent of Americans favor the measure, up 13 percent since January, NOW is staging energetic last-minute efforts to win ratification. Three more states are needed before the June 30 deadlines.

NOW says Florida's governor has put the ERA on the agenda for a special legislative session in June. It says there'll be a June vote in North Carolina, too. In Illinois, the campaign aims to change rules so that ERA could pass by majority vote in each house rather than by three-fifths. ERA bills have won majorities there in the past.

In Oklahoma, where the state Senate already voted down the bill, the issue could be brought up again before the end of June. Backers say some legislators have promised to try if two other states fall into line first.