The "push poll" that wasn't

(a transcription of the telephone survey is at the bottom of the page)

In November 2016, a small number of Eastmoreland homes were called and asked to participate in a telephone survey. This phone survey was strenuously condemned by the ENA as a “push poll”, a type of poll which is designed not to collect opinions but to deliver negative attacks on a political rival.

Here's how the New York Times describes the elements of a push poll...

“With a push poll, it is often very difficult to find out what organization is behind it. Only a few questions are asked, all about a single candidate or a single issue, uniformly negative or rarely positive. Time is not wasted asking demographic questions because there is no analysis being done. And the number of people called is very large, sometimes several thousand.” https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/19/upshot/push-polls-defined.html

By all these criteria, the Eastmoreland historic district telephone survey was not a push poll.  The caller identified themselves and a fairly large number of questions were asked.  The survey tested a variety of issues, both positive and negative.  There were demographic questions at the end of the survey, and very few people were contacted for the survey.

If the survey was a push poll, it would attack one side or the other.  It would make the attack in the span of two or three questions or comments, so as not to waste time that could be used to reach more people.  The push poll always calls a very large number of people, to spread its message as wide as possible. 

These facts didn’t stop the ENA from labeling the telephone survey as an insidious and despicable attempt by HD opponents to sow misinformation, fear and doubt about the historic district.

This telephone survey was demonized by the ENA, when it was actually the kind of tool that the ENA should have been using to collect the neighborhood's opinions about a HD.  But they've never been interested in the opinions of the homeowners, even to the point of ignoring the results of their own poll.

Here’s the transcript so you can judge for yourself.