Majority of California voters believe Bonds used steroids

Saturday, April 15th 2006, 11:26 am

By: News On 6

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) _ A majority of California voters believe that Giants slugger Barry Bonds used steroids to enhance his performance and that he should be penalized for doing so, according to a poll released Saturday.

A Field Poll found that 58 percent of voters believe Bonds used steroids, a number that increases to 68 percent among baseball fans. Ten percent of voters believe he did not use steroids, and 32 percent said they didn't know.

The poll comes as Major League Baseball probes alleged steroid use among players, and a federal grand jury investigates whether Bonds committed perjury when he testified in 2003 that he never used steroids.

Most respondents _ 77 percent of voters and 79 percent of baseball fans _ said they approved of the baseball probe, according to the survey.

If the investigation concludes that Bonds knowingly used steroids, 64 percent of voters said he should be penalized, while 26 percent said he should not, researchers found.

Asked what sanctions Bonds should face, 43 percent said they supported making him pay a large fine and 40 percent said they favored putting an asterisk next to his baseball records.

Researchers interviewed 917 registered voters, including 383 self-identified baseball fans, by telephone from April 3-10 in English and Spanish. The poll has a sampling error rate of 3.3 percentage points.