The Seattle Weekly reports that the Washington Poll has released new results from a poll stating:

“Surprisingly, two initiatives that were winning flipped—Eyman’s 985, which had been up two points, is now down fifteen, while Prop 1, sadly, has gone from up seven to down eight, with an increasing number of undecideds. It seems voters have been reading the M.F. Truth.”

Here’s where to find the poll: http://www.washingtonpoll.org/results.html

We’ll see - I wonder whether it will take days for that outcome to become apparent.

Washington State really needs to make the mail-in ballots due by election day.

Stuart Elway's latest poll, which contacted 405 registered voters Oct. 16-19, shows that Tim Eyman's Initiative 985 (traffic congestion) is leading 49-33 with 18 percent undecided. Elway's poll has a 5 percent margin for error. (If you did the poll 100 times, it would turn out this way 95 times.) Elways said this is his last poll before the election. Booth Gardner's Initiative 1000 (assisted suicide), is leading 55-37, with 8 percent undecided. The SEIU's Initiative 1029 (homecare worker training), is leading 72-10, with 18 percent undecided. (My colleague, Jason Hagey, is posting an item about the governor's race, ...

Critics of Sound Transit’s recent poll call it a “push-poll”, meaning that it is written to drive you to a particular outcome, favored by Sound Transit.

Ostensibly, these results would be used to calculate the public will for another Sound Transit proposal on the ballot in fall 2008.

See the debate over Sound Transit’s methods at: http://www.crosscut.com/tacoma/12134/

From sjenner:

“I think an appropriate survey would ask people to give their priorities, it would provide a way for open ended comments that could then be used to shape a follow up survey that is both open to the public and that is asked in a statistically valid manner of voters who live in the taxing area. Finally it would not be prejudged to an end point: the whole point of the survey seems to be “will people vote for .3, .5 or what for a sales tax increase to pay for rail.” Definitely the survey should ask about alternatives for paying for transportation improvements. The legislature should insist on this before there’s another vote.”

From dbreneman:

“Yeah, push polling is an understatement. It was more like shove down a flight of stairs polling.”

From sjenner:

“I personally feel it is appropriate to call a survey a “push poll” if it asks questions that directs answers into certain groupings that appear to me to be pre-defined…..

We’ve learned that the poll is open to anyone, not just voters in the taxing district. We’ve learned it is possible to take the poll multiple times. We’ve learned certain questions are not included, like “what is the region’s top transportation priority” or “how important is reducing greenhouse gas as a part of a transportation plan” or “what suggestions do you have for paying for public transit besides a sales tax increase.”

From rasul:

“I did take the poll and found the questions to be very loaded. There were comment spaces, but I wonder what will be done with the comments–largely tossed, I’m guessing.”

Sound Transit is accused of push-polling Crosscut, WA - 8 hours ago By Lisa Albers The widely promoted Sound Transit survey has more bugs than bang, say critics. My blog linking to the survey gleaned excellent critiques ...

Sound Transit survey, take 2 Crosscut, WA - 22 hours ago By Lisa Albers As reported in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Sound Transit received complaints about their regional transportation survey, also criticized ...

First, read this excerpt from an e-mail that was forwarded to me by our Letters to the Editor folks...

SoundTransit’s survey is a total sham! I received a fancy card from SoundTransit in the mail asking me to complete their survey. As a good citizen, I went on-line and started to complete the survey. Soon I found out that they didn’t really want my opinion, they wanted to control my feedback. I do not favor light rail because it costs much more than busses and is much less flexible. The survey required me to answer question after question about ...

Readers ask about Sound Transit's online survey about transporation options, a questionably placed left-turn arrow in South Park, when the Broad Street ramp from southbound Aurora will reopen.

The Washington Policy Center has information on its website regarding a poll it recently conducted on the reasons folks voted down the Prop 1 transportation package.

Here’s an interesting point from the poll- 50% of the respondents said that Sound Transit should roll back taxes from their current tax rates, and only 30% said we should continue with the current tax rates.

Apparently, the other 20% hasn’t been paying attention, one way or another….

See the whole poll at: http://washingtonpolicyblog.typepad.com/washington_policy_center_/2008/01/transportation.html

Since the November election, four polls have been released trying to explain what voters were thinking on the ST2/RTID ballot measure. Washington Policy Center Sound Transit Sierra Club Cocker Fennessy ...

Speaking of tracking the reasons Puget Sound’s roads and transit package failed--here’s a chance for Puget Sound residents to put in your two cents about the Proposition 1 vote and where to go from here. Take Sound Transit's survey here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/soundtransit You can let Sound Transit hear your voice on transportation solutions in the region, congestion pricing, the taxes we pay for driving (and the costs we don’t pay), and other fascinating things (well, we ...