Web poll accurately projected race

Polls are not just for national or state elections anymore, they can also be useful tools even in small town elections like Apalachicola’s recent primary held this past Tuesday.

On July 25, the day after the official qualifying period ended for the city election, a web poll was embedded on this site to gauge the pulse of the community concerning the local fall election.

From July 25 to Aug 22, the poll recorded the responses of internet users who visited this site and participated in the poll question. “If the city election were held today who do you think would be the next city commissioner?”

Although unscientific, the poll accurately projected without a margin of error the outcome of the Seat 3 city commission race and the frontrunner in the Seat 4 race.

On Aug 22, the poll indicated that Frank Cook would win the Seat 3 race by 59 percent to Jerry Hall 41 percent, which turned out to be the exact outcome of the race.

The poll also had Seat 4 candidate Brenda Ash with a substantial lead over both Valentina Webb and Anderson Williams, which was the case.

The only variation was the projected percentages in the Seat 4 race.

The poll indicated that Ash would receive 65 percent of the vote, but the candidate actually picked up 45 percent, a 20% descending difference.

In the case of Valentina Webb, the poll showed Webb getting 25 percent of the tally; however, the incumbent commissioner garnered 32 percent, a 7% variance.

For Williams the poll projected 11 percent, but he did much better than the poll indicated and gained 23 percent, a 12% difference.

A new poll has been embedded to gauge the pulse of the community concerning the Sept 22, runoff election, only time will tell whether it accurately projects the outcome.