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Political notes from Free Press staff writers Terri Hallenbeck, Sam Hemingway and Nancy Remsen


4.02.2007

 

Survey says

Sen./Professor Bill Doyle's town meeting day survey results are in. Here are samplings, keeping in mind that this thing is not fodder for the mind but not scientific:

Barack Obama leads the way for president among Vermonters who attended town meeting and filled out a form. Hillary Clinton, Rudy Guiliani, John McCain and John Edwards followed in that order.

People were tied on whether gay marriage should be legalized in Vermont - 46-46 percent with 8 percent unsure.

Statewide cell and high-speed Internet service are important to the state's future, 82 percent said. Eight percent said that's not so. Ten percent were not sure, which does make you wonder if that 10 percent is sure of anything.

Sixty-eight percent liked the idea of commercial windmills on Vermont's ridgelines.

Sixty-eight percent also said Vermont should reduce its prison population through alternatives for non-violent offenders.

The ubiquitous 68 percent also would prohibit people from using cell phones while driving.

Public financing of political campaigns won the hearts of 30 percent, but 51 percent don't like the idea. Nineteen percent had no idea what that meant.

Fifty percent said Gov. Douglas is doing a good job, while 29 percent said he wasn't and 21 percent weren't sure.

Thirty-seven percent said the Legislature is doing a good job, while 35 percent said not so, and 28 percent were not sure.

If that last one lead you to believe that people thought the Legislature was wasting its time on global warming, then explain this one: Sixty-one said Vermont should take the lead in addressing global warming.

- Terri Hallenbeck

Comments:
Ugh. I almost puked when I saw that the Times Argus ran a story on this survey, front page, ABOVE THE FOLD! So much going on in the world, and this is front page news? Makes you wonder where all the real reporting has gone (would that be to the Douglas re-elect team, or, I'm sorry, state communicators, like they prefer?)
 
If the press didn't write stories about the Doyle "survey," maybe it would just go away. This "survey" is worthless as a measure of what Vermonters think, regardless of what party or politician is helped or hurt by the "results." Relying on these "results" to make policy decisions is like the old story that if you put some monkeys in front of computer keyboards and they stayed there long enough, eventually they would write Hamlet by chance.
 
I agree.

This unscientific survey does more to obscure the truth than to find it.

It's a lazy man's poll and it's inaccurate.
 
These surveys were delivered to our polls and left in a pile by the exit door along with some small pencils. Not only did everyone - including children - have access to these surveys, but there were no restrictions to filling out more than one nor were there concerns about people taking some home.

So why issue the surveys if so obviously flawed? Doyle knows it's a guarantee that the press will report the results as if they were scientifically collected. Therefore, he singlehandedly sways public opinion thanks to a few photocopies.
 
Well, I think that Doyle has good intentions.

I just think that his survey is garbage.
 
My representatives got so flustered by questions about property taxes at town meeting, they bailed out.

So quick they forgot to take the Doyle poll with them.

The Doyle poll is the best thing we got going right now for gauging the popular opinions of Vermont's registered voters. In theory.

It is not without its faults, but is a good-hearted attempt. At least it gives Doyles students something to tally and makes them feel important.

I think people read too much into the numbers sometimes. After all, it is just opinion.

Rednalsi
 
I understand the Doyle "poll" is not in fact a poll (i.e. of scientific method and independent tabulation.) That said, the fact is the media ain't doing polls anymore, probably because they're expensive. so this is what we've got. And this year's Doyle "survey" in fact has some very interesting findings. It's not everyday that 10,000 VTers' opinions on topical issues are out there to see and read. Cry and whine if you must, but those who diss the coverage of it because.. oh, that's right, they offer NO legitimate reason I suspect have an agenda they've chosen not to reveal. For whom do YOU lobby, critics?
 
People just don't like to hear what the poll is saying.
 
Agendas? Lobbying? How the F did these conspiracy theories come into play in relation to the Doyle poll? This person must blog from a secret bunker in Derby. They're coming to take me away, ha ha...
 
Yes, it's not scientific - a fact that's reported in EVERY story run about the Doyle poll. So all you naysayers - why don't you start your own damn poll and put your own money, time and sweat into THAT instead of your whining?
 
Somone doth protest too much...
 
The problem with an unscientific poll is that the findings are likely to be dead wrong.

Anyone who has worked with statistics won't pay attention to the Doyle poll.
 
I heard that the filled out ballots are being recycled into toilet paper, which would seem appropriate.
 
In this post, www.vermonttiger.com had this to say about the enormity of property tax relief that H526 will bring.

Not even a latte....
 
Another right wing wacko has a little blog ... go get 'em "tiger".

Heh. With a name like that, he must be trying to compensate for some short coming.
 
Two words: term limits.
 
The dims will return the $3 to the suckers and brag how they solved the property tax problem. (Of course they will end up stealing the money back with a fuel tax!)
 
After the way Bush has screwed up our country, even the GOP faithful (with the exception of the ever clueless Bubba) are realizing that taxes will have to be raised to offset Bush's and the ex-GOP Congress's creation of the largest deficits ever. Clinton created a surplus, but the GOP pissed that away quickly. We've also got the largest government ever from the party of less government. Unfortunately, the Dems inherited the freaking mess created by the GOP and now idiots like Bubba will hang them for doing what any thinking person knows must be done. Quick to blame but quicker to run away from blame. If you have better ideas, put yourself out there as a candidate Bubba. I'd rather enjoy seeing you trounced by a larger margin than Richie Rich.
 
Facts, please: Clinton was forced to go along with Newt Ginrich to balance the budget in the late 90's or face a balanced budget constitutional amendment. The deficit is currently being lowered ahead of schedule, or WAS until the dims took over. Cutting taxes on EVERYONE has been a boon to the U.S. economy, even though I realize Vermont is still in third-world status. Remember, Bush inherited the recession Clinton left him in 1990, not to mention a policy of cowardice and appeasement towards our enemies. Fred Thompson will fix things.
 
Bubba,
You can't even get the most basic facts straight.

Clinton did not leave office in 1990 -- duh.

Let off the drugs a bit ... okay?

-BH4B
 
And getting back to the Doyle poll, I am actually surprised no one has built upon its success yet.

Not many people at town meeting haven't heard about it.

A few tweaks here and there would potentially make for an effective measure of public opinion at an invaluable time; town meeting.

Besides better survey handling and statistics, more questions? Double sided?

Rednalsi
 
What the democratic leadership thinks we voters care about is clearly very different than what we voters really care about.
 
"Besides better survey handling and statistics, more questions? Double sided?"

It'd be nice if it was printed on a heavier stock of paper.

Perhaps a font of Arial Black.

Legal sized paper.

Perhaps a light blush color.

These things really do matter.

Pay no attention to the fact that the actual survey is a crock of horse turd.

Let's make it look pretty.

Rednazi
 
The other Red is a ditz. Said h/she was moving out of state, but no such luck.
 
Someone's got a case of writers envy.

Anyways, what if the Doyle poll was stuffed in with the ballots. Collected and tallied the same way? But then that would be an abuse of the volunteers who came to do government work.

Maybe the poll should be done by show of hands and recorded at town meeting? But then that would make the question selection a highly political process.

How does one make a state run poll that is scientific and unpolitical? Sounds like an oxymoron to me.

Maybe the Doyle poll is a doomed town meeting distraction. Maybe it's a Vermont tradition the whiners will just have to put up with.

We'll just have to see.

Rednalsi
 
Sometimes it just is what it is.
 
and it is
 
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