Poll results from last week
Last week I had two polls, here are the results:
1) A Louisiana justice of the peace refused to marry an interracial couple citing concern for any kids they may have. Thoughts?
- This is not 1959! He should resign. 154 (72%)
- A legit concern even in 2009, he should keep his job. 53 (25%)
- Unsure/no opinion 8 (4%)
A state statute says justices of the peace may perform marriage ceremonies, but it does not require such officials to do so, Tammi Arender, a spokeswoman for the Louisiana attorney general, told CNN on Monday.
Justices of the peace in Louisiana are elected, but the state’s high court has jurisdiction over whether they can keep their jobs, Louisiana Supreme Court spokeswoman Valerie Willard said. The Judiciary Commission, a judicial body independent of the Supreme Court, has the power to review a case and make recommendations to the high court. (Source: CNN)
2) Should Catholic Priests be allowed to marry:
- Yes 103 (73%)
- No 25 (18%)
- Unsure/no opinion 13 (9%)
Both interesting results, neither was what I expected.
– Steve Patterson
25% of respondents felt interracial marriage was “a legit concern even in 2009, he should keep his job.”
Wow! Unacceptable! Clearly this nation has a huge way to go.
Steve, with 25% of respondents feeling the justice should keep his job, I’m wondering about the type of folks that come to this blog. Clearly this isn’t a refelction of you, but that is really sad.
Wow, I am totally shocked by these results. More people thought that interracial marriage was a concern than thought that priests should not be allowed to marrry? If 25% of folks who read this blog think that it is a concern, what about the average person in St. Louis?
Yeah, the interesting result is that the readership of your block is shockingly racist, not unlike STL…
There are a couple of ways to look at the 25%. Either they’re being anonymously honest, reflecting an underlying racism that’s taking too long to die out, or they’re doing it to skew or punk the poll results. In either case, the 25% is a distinct minority – too big, but not nearly big enough to impact policy . . .
Not a shocker to this four year (non-native) inhabitant of St. Louis. Just think of the demographic differences between North and South County. It’s real folks, and it’s not pretty.
I hate to break this to all the people that run online polls, but online polls are absolutely, completely meaningless. The results of this poll don’t say anything about the readers of this blog, or about anything at all. This poll doesn’t mean that 73% of people thought one thing and 18% of people though another thing. Its just means one button was pushed 73% of the time and another one 18% of the time. Maybe the same person pushed the same button 20 times, there is no way to know. There is also no way to know what the sample was. Anyway, a voluntary online poll is basically the equivalent of bowling with no rules. Throw as many balls as you want. Count some pins double. Bowl in your neighbors lane. Maybe its fun, but thats it.
Fair enough, but one can still vote multiple times from different ip addresses. Anyway, the bigger point is that unless you control the sample polls are meaningless. Online surveys are self selecting which typically means only people with stronger opinions vote in them. For instance, it would be pretty easy to get 100% of people polled in a cigar shop to say that they “Really Like” cigars. But that wouldn’t say anything about how much people like cigars. This is a topic that kind of irks me because I sometimes see and hear surveys that are clearly not “scientific” get talked about or maybe even reported as news. This is especially the case when shows want to create their own news – like when a talk show on tv directs people to their website to answer a survey question. Anyway, as someone who once had to conduct a scientific survey, I’ll just say that a lot of work goes into figuring out if your sample is either random or targeted where it is supposed to be, and unless you do that kind of upfront work, whatever the results are just don’t have have any significance.
I’ll tell you that I was one of the 25%. I was voting more AGAINST making him resign than I was FOR it being a legitimate concern. I voted this way for a few reasons: (1) Judges make decisions daily based on their interpretations of law and their own experience. I don’t think he should lose his job because he made a judgement call on his convictions within the freedoms of his job description. The high court can force him to marry the couple, or decide to fire him as they wish. (2) I’m sure most of you would find it hard to disagree that this elected official should be doing his best to represent the concerns of his constituents in upholding civil and cultural norms. Without scientifically polling his Louisiana constituents we don’t know if this is a decision they would approve of anyway. (3) The context of the judge’s decision and this poll needs to be considered as well. Were people voting that it was a legitimate concern in 2009 in LOUISIANA? Should it matter? Perhaps the judge, if serving in elsewhere would behave differently. I don’t find it hard to believe that an interracial marriage is better accepted and successful in more metropolitan, liberal settings.
Steve, what results did you expect?