California voters overwhelmingly back the tough-on-crime ballot initiative that has dominated political discussion ahead of November’s election, according to a new statewide poll released Wednesday.
Seventy-one percent of likely voters said they support Proposition 36, which would strengthen criminal penalties for repeat offenders of drug and theft crimes. The poll, conducted by the Public Policy Institute of California, found that just 26 percent would vote against it.
Asked which measure on this year’s ballot they are most interested in, 26 percent of likely voters named Prop 36 — far more than any of the other nine issue questions on the ballot in November. Three in four said they believe the outcome of the vote on Prop 36 is very or somewhat important.
The measure also got support from across the political spectrum: 85 percent of Republicans said they would vote “Yes” on Prop 36, as would 73 percent of independents and 63 percent of Democrats.
Prop 36 got the highest support among this year’s slate of 10 ballot measures.