This
article examines the use of a Citizens’ Jury as a source of voter information
in the context of a government-initiated (top-down) referendum. Several studies
show the capacity of the Citizens’ Initiative Review (CIR) to enhance voters’
knowledge and capacity of judgement in ballot initiative processes. However,
similar procedures have not been tested outside the US or in the context of
government-initiated referendums. Our case is a Citizens’ Jury on Referendum
Options organized in the municipality of Korsholm (Finland) in 2019. Even
though the referendum concerned a contested municipal merger, we find that
jury’s participants were nonetheless satisfied with the deliberative process
and found it impartial. A large majority of voters in Korsholm had read the
statement by the jury and thought it was a useful and trustworthy source of
information. Based on a field experiment, we find that reading the statement
increased trust in the jury, factual knowledge, issue efficacy and
perspective-taking.