Results From Recent Hawkeye Poll Highlighted in Eastern Iowa

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With the Iowa City Council considering the proposed revisions to the city’s Home Rule Charter made by the Charter Review Commission, this Hawkeye Poll survey focused on these proposed revisions.  More specifically, the survey asked who should be allowed to sign initiative petitions and should Iowa City citizens directly elect their mayor? 

The University of Iowa Hawkeye Poll conducted March 23, 2015 to March 29, 2015 of 657 residents of Johnson County asked the 364 respondents who indicated they live in Iowa City to weigh in on some of the proposed changes. 61 percent of respondents agree with the proposal to allow any eligible voter to sign initiative petitions while 31.8 percent preferred the current rules, which limits signatures to registered voters. Respondents prefer to keep the current number of required signatures, about 2500, over the proposal to raise it to about 3600 by over a two to one margin, with 63.7 percent preferring the lower threshold and 26.7 percent the larger threshold.

On Tuesday, April 21, 2015, Iowa City Council approved the increase in the number of required signatures for initiatives or referendums; however, according to the Hawkeye Poll, only 27 percent of respondents supported this new 3,600-signature threshold.

You can view and read the Hawkeye Poll Report here.

You can view and the article in the Iowa City Press-Citizen here.

You can read and the article in The Gazette here