Orange County Business Council

November 22, 1999

Excerpts from press release. The following are exact quotes taken for brevity and without editorial comment.

Orange County Voters Not Yet Attuned to “Safe and Healthy “ Initiative

Four out of five registered voters say they are not at all familiar with the Safe and Healthy Communities Initiative set to be placed on the March 2000 ballot.   The poll, completed last week by CSUF political science professors Phillip Gianos and Sandra Sutphen, found that 83% of registered voters report that they are “not at all familiar” with the initiative.

Notwithstanding their lack of familiarity with the initiative, when read the ballot language, 54% of those responding to the poll said they would support the initiative, about 25% said they would oppose it, and 21% said they did not know how they would vote.

Support for the initiative was lower in southern Orange County (62.5%) than in northern Orange County (70%).

Seventy-nine percent of voters in south county indicated they strongly or somewhat oppose building an international airport at MCAS El Toro.  Meanwhile, 57.5% of northern Orange County voters indicated strong or somewhat strong support.

Among south county respondents, nearly 62% were either strongly or somewhat opposed [to building a new jail].  By comparison, 48.6% of north county registered voters were strongly or somewhat opposed to building a new jail.

The survey reached by telephone a random sample of 603 registered voters, during the period November 10 to November 18, 1999.  The survey has an error rate of +/-4%.