Voters Want More Control in Government, Poll Shows; 80 Pct. of Minn. Voters Favor Establishing Initiative and Referendum Process

2/28/2002

From: Dane Water of IRI, 202-429-5539, or Stella Harrison of Stellar Strategies, 202-431-6461

WASHINGTON, Feb. 28 -- A new survey, commissioned by the Initiative & Referendum Institute and conducted by Portrait of America, reveals that residents of the North Star State want influence over the laws that govern them by creating a process that allows more direct citizen participation, namely the initiative and referendum (I&R) process. Currently there are only 24 states with the I&R process. As the results of this poll show, Minnesotans would like to become the 25th state.

-- 80 percent surveyed favor initiative and referendum.

-- More than three out of four respondents thought it was important that the House and Senate offer the citizens of Minnesota the opportunity to vote on initiative and referendum in the November general election

-- Minnesotans believe initiative and referendum to be an important issue by greater than a 3-to-1 margin.

The results are based on telephone interviews of 1,873 Minnesota adults and was conducted on February 2-3, 2002. The margin of sampling error is plus-or-minus 2.3 percentage points with a 95 percent level of confidence.

"The results of this poll clearly show that Minnesotans have faith in their fellow citizens to become involved in the political process and make informed decisions," said Dane Waters, president of the Initiative & Referendum Institute. "The initiative and referendum process is an empowering tool that can create higher levels of citizen involvement and a more balanced political system. I hope legislators will seriously weigh the results of this survey and offer the citizens of Minnesota the opportunity to vote on this important tool of self governance," Waters concluded.

The Initiative & Referendum Institute is a 501(c)3 tax-exempt educational and research organization dedicated to the study of the initiative and referendum process.

To interview Dane Waters of the Initiative Referendum Institute or obtain a copy of the survey, contact Stella Harrison of Stellar Strategies at 703-837-1820 or mobile: 202-431-6461 or Dane Waters at 202-429-5539.