Thomas Jefferson supported initiative and referendum for the State of Virginia, he said. In Minnesota, initiative and referendum amendments have appeared three times on the ballot the last in 1980 and were supported by the majority of voters though failed to garner the required supermajority said. Polls show some 70 percent of the voters support such an initiative, said Terwilliger. St. Paul Mayor Norm Coleman said it wasn t a question of whether initiative and referendum would come to Minnesota but whether the state would be ready for it. Advances in technology, the Internet, permits voters to participate in government in new and exciting ways, he said.
Technology is here to stay.
We should not fear it but grasp it, said Coleman. While the results of last year s Minnesota Twins ball park referendum in St. Paul wasn t what he wanted, Coleman said St. Paul s referendum energized voters. It s a good process, he said. We can make sure we have a better mousetrap than California, said Coleman. Minnesota Planning Director Dean Barkley said Gov. Jesse Ventura supports referendum and initiative as a filtering process is included to limit the number of issues appearing on the ballot at one time.