December 19, 2006 --As Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger renews his call for an independent redistricting commission, a new opinion poll finds that California voters overwhelmingly support improvements in the election process, but there's a catch -- it depends on who is proposing them.

A statewide survey commissioned by the nonpartisan New America Foundation found that 70 percent of voters are more likely to support recommendations made by a panel of average citizens than they are to support the ideas of a government committee or even a panel of independent experts. Only 10 percent said they have more confidence in a government committee.

With such distrust for politicians, the survey also found strong support for a citizen-based reform model that was demonstrated recently in Canada. In that case, lawmakers convened a "citizens' assembly" made up of 160 randomly selected average voters. The group spent nearly a year studying the election process and made proposals for improvements that were placed directly on the ballot.

In the New America survey, three-fourths of the respondents said they would like to see the governor and the Legislature create a similar citizens assembly in California. More than two-thirds also said they would vote for an initiative to create the citizens' panel if it were on the ballot.

The survey, conducted by the Survey and Policy Research Institute at San Jose State University, polled active voters statewide over a three-day period ending Nov. 30. It affirmed general approval of the governor and Legislature in Sacramento, but it still found overwhelming demand for better elections and better candidates that cut across all racial, partisan and ideological lines. Seventy percent of respondents said they "often feel [they] are voting for the lesser of two evils." More than 3 out of 4 voters said the system favors Democratic and Republican candidates and is unfair to independents or minor party candidates. Nearly 60 percent said the system needs improvement and that government would perform better if a wider variety of candidates were elected. More than half the voters say California needs another major political party.

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