Illinoisans appear to support term limits for state lawmakers, according to a new poll by the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute. More than 61 percent of the poll's respondents strongly favored term limits for state legislators, while about 17 percent either somewhat or strongly opposed such restrictions.

“Regardless of whom you ask or how you phrase the question, legislative term limits are extraordinarily popular among the Illinois electorate,” said Charlie Leonard, a Simon Institute visiting professor who also supervised the poll. “Unable or unwilling to limit their own representatives’ terms through the ballot box, the voters seem to hope a blanket constitutional amendment will do the job for them.”

The statewide poll of 1,001 registered voters saw that Republicans were more likely to support term limits, with 89.9 percent of Republicans somewhat or strongly supporting it. A majority of the Democrats polled also supported term limits, with 73.4 percent of respondents somewhat or strongly supporting such an initiative.

Here are more specifics on the poll's findings:

Would you favor or oppose a proposal to limit state legislators to a total of eight years of service, whether in the House of Representatives, the State Senate, or a combination of
the two?
 
Response                         Percent Responding
Strongly favor                  61.7%
Somewhat favor               17.8%
Somewhat oppose            8.5%
Strongly oppose               8.6%
Other/Don’t know            3.4%
 

Would you favor or oppose a proposal to limit how long state legislators could serve in  leadership roles – such as Speaker of the House or President of the Senate – before they
stepped down to let other legislators lead?

Response                       Percent Responding
Strongly favor                65.1%
Somewhat favor             17.6%
Somewhat oppose         8.3%
Strongly oppose            6.3%
Other/Don’t know 2.7%
 

The poll was conducted February 12 to February 25. The poll's margin of error is 3.5 percentage points. Read more about the findings here.