EDITORIAL: Greasing the poll

We’re not Gallup, nor do we purport to be. But the online polls at thedestinlog.com do have a purpose.

Our polls are not like the Census, where each Destin household gets one chance and one chance only to make its opinion known.

Rather, they’re more like a passion predictor. Some folks don’t care enough to vote. Some folks are willing to vote once and let that be enough. Others prefer to shout their opinion to the world, and they do that by investing the time — a lot of time — to click repeatedly.  They reboot their computers. They clear their cookies. They essentially create robots to vote for them.

One would presume that the number of folks willing to expend such effort is proportional on both sides of an issue, but we can never be sure. It’s just not a scientific poll, and it doesn’t claim to be.

In a perfect world, we would have a foolproof poll. But if such a thing existed, we’d be voting for our next president in between checking status updates on Facebook.

What an Internet poll is, is an opportunity for you to share your voice, as often — or as sparingly — as you choose. And reader input is something The Destin Log remains committed to. We love to hear from you as much as possible, and if polls aren’t your preferred method, consider a letter to the editor like Guy Tadlock wrote below.

Believe it or not, we do listen to our readers and in Tadlock’s case we are adding a disclaimer to our poll.

Freedom of speech is a beautiful and messy thing.