Katy Murphy of Bay Area News Group has this story on the latest Field Poll. Both of the death penalty propositions are ahead by single digits in this poll, though 10% remain undecided on 66. The marijuana and gun control initiatives appear to be headed for approval.
Once again, Field gave its respondents only the confusing ballot language on 66. That would accurately gauge the votes of people who will vote without consulting anything else and those who have already gotten information from other sources and made up their minds. It would not, however, reflect the votes of people who have not yet made up their minds on the "down ballot" questions and will consult external sources before doing so. Other polls that tell people in simple terms that 66 will speed up enforcement of the death penalty show it doing far better, as I noted earlier.
Once again, Field gave its respondents only the confusing ballot language on 66. That would accurately gauge the votes of people who will vote without consulting anything else and those who have already gotten information from other sources and made up their minds. It would not, however, reflect the votes of people who have not yet made up their minds on the "down ballot" questions and will consult external sources before doing so. Other polls that tell people in simple terms that 66 will speed up enforcement of the death penalty show it doing far better, as I noted earlier.
Due to the length of California ballots, I always vote by mail, and I mailed mine in yesterday. After considerable pondering, I voted against the marijuana initiative. (CJLF takes no position.) As I have explained before on this blog, I consider the creation of a Big Pot industry aggressively marketing its product to be a much greater threat than the change from our present de facto legalization to de jure legalization. I might have voted for a better proposal, but this one was written and funded by people who actually want a Big Pot industry.
Murphy notes this wrinkle in the 62 and 66 votes:
Murphy notes this wrinkle in the 62 and 66 votes:
Although just one of the death-penalty initiatives can win out, 23 percent of voters surveyed in the Field Poll were supporting both of the competing measures -- Propostion 62, to repeal capital punishment, and Proposition 66 to overhaul a system widely blasted as costly and dysfunctional.
"That doesn't surprise me, really," said Kent Scheidegger, legal director of Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, which supports Prop. 66 and opposes Prop. 62. For some, he said, "the status quo is the worst possibility."
George Skelton of the LA Times has this column supporting that position.
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