Politics.bm

Poll exhaustion

There's been a lot of polling going on lately, to the point where I think Bermuda is just about polled out.

It's one thing to poll in populations in the millions, but it's another to have had two parties and The Royal Gazette intensely banging away with polls in a population of tens of thousands (with far less actual households) for the better part of 18 months.

I know from feedback I receive from poll recipients that they're playing games in how they answer the poll based on who they think is conducting it, because they get polled so frequently.

For that reason I'm highly skeptical of recent polls.

Four days ago a reader sent in the questions of a poll they'd just responded to.

I've included the whole poll below, and from what I've been able to find out it appears that this poll wasn't commissioned by a party or someone in the media but that research.bm tacked some questions onto a banking poll.

The questions were very direct, but one really jumped out to me:

5. Do you feel the BHC documents were leaked to the media by:

a) the UBP;
b) a PLP member;
c) the auditor general; or
d) other

Huh? We know who leaked the documents: Harold Darrell, yet he wasn't included as a response. So unless this question is attempting to measure the success of the PLP's campaign to portray the leaks as orchestrated by the UBP, I don't get the point.

It's the equivalent of polling the following question:

Q: Who was responsible for the September 11 attacks?

a) Saddam Hussein
b) A member of a terrorist organisation
c) The US Government
d) Other

or

Q: Which weapons of Mass Destruction were found in Iraq?

a) A nuke
b) Sarin gas
c) A dirty bomb
d) Other

Surely the right answer should be in there (ie. Al Qaeda and None respectively)?

Anyway, here is the whole poll:

1. Are you registered to vote;

2. Will you vote;

3. Which party will you vote for;

4. On a scale from 1 (very poor) to 7 (excellent) in ten years time what is the likelihood the island will have better:

a) Education:
b) Affordable Housing;
c) one more I can't remember

5. Do you feel the BHC documents were leaked to the media by:

a) the UBP;
b) a PLP member;
c) the auditor general; or
d) other

6. Will the PLP be better off without Dr. Brown as their leader.

These are some of the most direct polling questions I've ever received.