On-line polls

Did you ever get an e-mail from an acquaintance who says YOU MUST go to such and such a site and answer a poll on this issue or that? Sure you have.

Such an e-mail hit my in-box today for an MSNBC poll on Arizona's new immigration law that allows police officers to ask for identification if they think a person is in the country illegally. Here was the message in the exact type size:

If you don't do anything else today, please answer this MSNBC Poll question and forward it on to as many people as you can. The silent majority must not be silent on this one.

OK, I get it, you want me to look at the poll. So, I did, and voted.

Now, I don't know when this poll was first posted on MSNBC but as of this morning it had more than 1,100,000 respondents. The question is, where are all the people opposed to the Arizona initiative? Why haven't their e-mail alerts clued them to the poll?

Let's be honest, polls don't matter. They don't change political positions but they make you feel good to know that you are not alone with your feelings one way or the other. Keep those polls coming, I love to be one in million or in this case one of 90+% of 1,100,000.

Well, that's what I have to say.

Stephen M. Flatow