Virginia Poll: Voters Want Legislature To Act On Mandatory Minimums, Marijuana Legalization, Mental Health Evidence
By Charlotte Swasey
Eliminating all mandatory minimums is supported by VA voters, by a 12 point margin
59 percent of voters oppose keeping marijuana possession in a vehicle illegal
66 percent support allowing the consideration of mental health evidence
In partnership with Justice Forward VA, Data for Progress conducted a statewide survey in Virginia, with a series of questions about issues before the legislature this session.
Mandatory Minimums
Our first topic of interest was mandatory minimum sentences, provisions which prevent judges from considering under a minimum penalty for a given category of crime. The Virginia legislature is currently considering eliminating these, which advocates say would allow for fairer, more personalized sentencing, and prevent unjustly high required sentences.
Voters support eliminating all mandatory minimum sentences in Virginia by a 12 point margin.
We find that voters strongly support individualized sentences, where a judge is allowed to tailor a sentence to the particulars of the case, without being required to give a mandatory minimum sentence based on the type of offense.
This is favored by a 50 point margin among all voters, and only declines to a 41 point margin among Republicans.
Marijuana Legalization
Our poll focused on a provision of the proposed marijuana legalization which would keep possession in a vehicle illegal, despite possession otherwise being legalized. Opponents have argued that this provision is nonsensical, and designed to allow the continued targeting of communities of color in both traffic stops and drug policing. We asked voters if they would support the continued illegality of possession of marijuana in a vehicle, or if it should be legalized if general possession is legalized, since driving under the influence is already a separate crime on the books.
59 percent of Virginia voters said that they would not support the provision keeping possession in a vehicle illegal. This is a 24 point margin of support, which is widest among Democrats and narrows to 3 points among Republicans.
We further tested the argument that this provision would be used to specifically target racial minorities, which has been put forth by advocates for removing the vehicle provision. This made 39 percent of voters less likely to support keeping possession in a vehicle illegal, including 35 percent of Republicans. An additional 29 percent overall reported no change to their opinion from this argument.
Mental Health Evidence
A large majority of voters support allowing for the consideration of evidence about a defendant's mental state and mental health during a criminal trial, which is currently prohibited except in rare cases. We find support at a 43 percent margin overall, with minimal change among partisan groups.
On these three key topics, we find that Virginia voters support the legislature acting to eliminate unjust laws and allow for fair treatment of individuals.
Charlotte Swasey (@charlotteeffect) is the Vice President of Data and Polling at Data For Progress.
Survey Methodology
From February 16 to February 18, 2021, Data for Progress conducted a survey of 706 likely voters in Virginia using web panel respondents. The sample was weighted to be representative of likely voters by age, gender, education, race, and voting history. The survey was conducted in English. The margin of error is ±3.7 percentage points.