The Garden Island’s latest Readers Poll opened a can of worms that we weren’t expecting. We asked, “Should the mayor and other elected and appointed Kaua’i County officials receive pay raises proposed by the Salary Commission?” As reported earlier this
The Garden Island’s latest Readers Poll opened a can of worms that we weren’t
expecting.
We asked, “Should the mayor and other elected and appointed
Kaua’i County officials receive pay raises proposed by the Salary Commission?”
As reported earlier this week, the answer from a majority of respondents –
about 70 percent – was no. For a variety of reasons, either now or never is not
the time to sweeten the officials’ wages, readers asserted.
We also got
some comments that should help readers get more out of our polls.
One man
from Koloa suggested opening the polls to respondents (“dinosaurs,” he jokingly
called them) who don’t have computers or easy access to one. The poll questions
are posed on TGI’s Website, KauaiWorld.com, and in the newspaper. But he’s
right: We need to start emphasizing that replies can be made by phone or
regular mail in addition to posting them electronically via the Web. Our
depending on the latter medium probably makes the respondents less
random.
Which brings up another comment on our polling method, this one
from a county official who contended our polls aren’t truly random. He said
that unlike professional polling in which names are chosen randomly from
telephone books or voter registration lists, our method is structured in a way
that caters to computer users and people who simply want to complain.
“Ask
yourself: Is it truly representative of what people on the island think?” the
official said.
He raised a good point. It made us wonder if our polls might
only attract the kind of people referred to by the official – some of whom he
described in less-than-complimentary terms.
Well, if that happens, so be
it. Our polls are open to everyone, just like letters to the editor. And with
estimates ranging around 50 percent as to the number of Kauaians who have
access to the Internet via computers at home, school or wherever, we don’t feel
narrow-focused if most reponses come via our Website.
As for the
statistical accuracy of our polls, they’re not intended to be scientific. What
is intended is to give people something to think and talk about regarding an
issue. Nothing more. And are they random? Well, because they’re open to anyone
who cares to respond (albeit ones who read the newspaper or our Website), they
seem as random as polls in which only certain people are surveyed.
A
newspaper is supposed to help spark discussion – not control it, but just
contribute to a community’s dialogue on whatever issue catches their attention.
All we did in the poll about pay raises was ask a question and report on
the answers, just as we did in others and will in the future. To do anything
more scientific would be fine, as long as all voices are heard. To do anything
less would make us a sideline observor. And we’re not on the sideline. We’re in
the game. Maybe we’re the football being kicked back and forth, or maybe we’re
the quarterback like some people think – lobbing lame ducks sometimes and
firing flor touchdowns other times. Whatever the interpretation, we’re not, nor
will we be, unwilling to seek out people’s opinions.
At the same time,
we’ll do something a little different with our polls from now on. We’ll state
more clearly that they aren’t scientific or random, but that they are open to
anyone who wants to put in their two cents’ worth via Website, phone or mail.
TGI editor Pat Jenkins can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 227) or
pjenkins@pulitzer.net
