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Sunday Morning News

What Hot-Button Issues Will be Voted on This Coming Election Day?

Aired November 5, 2000 - 8:37 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: When voters go to the polls next Tuesday, not only will they be voting for the next president, but several hot-button issues in dozens of states. And joining me to talk about them is Dane Waters, president and founder of the Initiative and Referendum Institute.

Good morning, Dane.

DANE WATERS, INITIATIVE & REFERENDUM INSTITUTE: Good morning.

PHILLIPS: Real quickly, I'm going to run through the nine most controversial, OK, then we're going to talk about them. Drug policy reform, vouchers, gun control, same-sex marriage, ending bilingual education, physician assisted suicide, animal protection, health care reform, tax reform.

All right, we've laid them out. Let's talk about a few. How about vouchers and charter schools. I mean wouldn't you say this is the future of education?

WATERS: It is. You know, the people who are taking education reform to the ballot, the vouchers are on the ballot in California and Michigan. The California voucher measure is not faring well at the ballot box and probably will be defeated by 20 or 30 points. It will be a setback for the voucher movement. Charter schools, though, is doing quite well. Paul Allen (ph) in Washington State is pushing charter schools and a lot of people in the school choice movement may be moving toward charter schools versus school vouchers.

PHILLIPS: Now, doesn't vouchers, it just sounds like such a great concept. You would think that everybody would love this idea, getting money to go to school.

WATERS: Well, vouchers, they're strongly supported across the country, but the initiative process may not be the best mechanism to push vouchers because it's easy for the teachers unions to kind of demagogue the issue and say it will harm public education. So I believe that the future of the voucher movement is probably in the state legislatures or with Congress.

PHILLIPS: same-sex marriage, do you expect a conservative response to this? WATERS: Well, the ban on same-sex marriage, which is on the ballot in Nebraska and Nevada, should pass handily. It's really being pushed by the Mormon Church. They've had three successes in Alaska, Hawaii and earlier this year in California. It's part of a larger theme by the conservative kind of Christian movement to push their social policy and moral issues through the ballot box.

PHILLIPS: You think it's going to be a tough fight then?

WATERS: It's going to be a tough fight. It definitely is going to be a tough fight because there's only a core group of states that you can, you know, that are conservative enough that can, that will adopt these type measures. But they're really hoping that if, after several states pass these measures, it will force Congress to act and take up these issues.

PHILLIPS: I thought times were changing and people were becoming more open and accepting, a little more liberal.

WATERS: Well, you would think that. You know, in the State of Maine, for example, there's a measure on the ballot that would ban the discrimination based upon sexual orientation. That should pass. I really think it depends on which state that you're in and what the values of the people in those states are.

PHILLIPS: Legalizing marijuana. This could trigger a response from Congress.

WATERS: It already has. You know, you have the George Sorros, the drug policy reform movement. They have a clean sweep at the ballot box, winning in seven states. Congress has already acted by passing laws that says any physician caught prescribing medical marijuana can lose their federal license. There's litigation ongoing associated with that. And I think you're going to see a backlash by Congress saying that these measures just can't exist in the states.

PHILLIPS: Now, you do a lot of research within your organization. Do you think legalizing marijuana really would bring down the crime rate when it comes to -- you laugh. OK.

WATERS: Well, no, it -- you know, the whole issue, you know, I saw an ad the other day in Colorado where the opposition is saying that Colorado already has the highest use of marijuana in the country and this is just going to increase that percentage. But, you know, the way these measures are drafted is very controlled. I mean you just can't go out and just say hey, you know, to your friend give me some marijuana. It just doesn't work that way.

It is very controlled. I don't, I personally don't believe it's going to increase marijuana usage and as many people say, it's a gateway drug and it will, you know, lead people to use heroin and other types of hard drugs. I just personally don't believe that's going to happen.

PHILLIPS: Well, do you think these controversial initiatives or initiatives in general affect voter turnout? WATERS: Oh, they definitely do. I mean all the academic research shows that, you know, it increases voter turnout three to seven percent. You know, people really care about these ballot measures because they see that their vote has a tangible impact. For example, if they're voting on banning same-sex marriage, they know that after Election Day that will happen. If they're voting for education reform, they know that that's going to happen versus when they vote for a candidate, you know, they're voting for a promise. You know, Al Gore, George W. says I'll do X, Y and Z and it'll be several years before those promises can take effect, if they do take effect.

PHILLIPS: We've got time for one more question. A certain initiative that's been interesting for you, you're the founder and polls of your organization. Anything that's sort of been truly interesting or you've learned something that you didn't expect?

WATERS: Well, we're seeing, you know, the number of initiatives on the ballot is definitely going down but the breadth of these measures is far reaching. There are so many issues out there, something for everybody. There's one measure on the ballot in Oregon that would ban the teaching of homosexuality in public schools. You know, they're so diverse, the impact could be so far reaching. It's a very interesting election cycle.

PHILLIPS: Dane Waters, president and founder of Initiative and Referendum Institute, thanks for being with us.

WATERS: Thank you for having me.

PHILLIPS: All right.

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