Second Vermont Republic Hid Polling Specs Data

For those of you who are still interested in learning anything more about the nature of the Second Vermont Republic leadership and some of their followers, I give you the 2006 Vermonter Poll questions along with the answers available to respondents:

Vermont Citizens’ Opinions Regarding Secession

Center for Rural Studies
May 2006

Methods

The data used in this report were collected by the Center for Rural Studies at the University of Vermont as part of the annual “Vermonter Poll.”

The survey was conducted between the hours of 4:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. beginning on February 13, 2006 and ending on March 2, 2006. The telephone polling was conducted from the University of Vermont using computer-aided telephone interviewing (CATI).

The sample for the poll was drawn through random digit dialing and used all of the telephone exchanges in the state of Vermont as the sampling frame. Only Vermont residents over the age of eighteen were interviewed. The poll included questions on a variety of issues related to public policy in the state of Vermont.

There were 611 respondents to the 2006 Vermonter Poll (Version II). The results ased on a group of this size have a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percent at a confidence interval of 95 percent.

Table 1
"Yes or no; has the federal government become unresponsive to the people of Vermont?"

Frequency/Percent
Yes       360      66.3
No        183      33.7
Total     543     100.0

Table 2
"What should be done [about the federal governments’ unresponsiveness to the people of Vermont]?"

Frequency/Percent
71        20.2%     Don't know, not sure, or no comment
71        20.2%     Regime change: impeach Bush, or replace current administration
57        16.2%     Vote differently: elect different people
36        10.2%     Policy or system changes
34        9.7%     Hold representatives accountable; current representatives need to address it
27        7.7%     Direct Action: Citizen involvement: more protests, letters, etc
21        6.0%     Nothing we can do: VT is too small, or doing everything we can
19        5.4%     State sovereignty: More local control or secession (3.1%)
16        4.5%     Miscellaneous

352      100.0%


Statement of Fact:
From 1777 to 1791 Vermont was an independent republic prior to joining the union as the 14th state.


Table 3
"It would be useful for the Vermont Legislature to investigate the economic impact of restoring Vermont to the status of an independent republic."

Frequency/Percent
Strongly agree                                         37        6.3
Agree                                                     67       11.5
Neither agree nor disagree                      42         7.2
Disagree                                               252       43.2
Strongly disagree                                  186       31.8
Total                                                    584     100.0

Table 4
"Should Vermont secede from the United States and become independent?"

Frequency/Percent
Yes             47           8.0
No            539          92.0

Total        586         100.0
[1]

As I said earlier, the first mention that I could find of the poll was one posted April 29, 2006 on Rob Williams' blog. [2]

As a result of this tease from a anonymous post from a SVR member,

"We would be glad to release all the data, but not here. Stay tuned."

I did another more detailed search and was able to locate the questions and available responses.

Perhaps even as interesting is what SVR has done to hide the questions that the anonymous poster has implied weren't hidden. [3]

Originally SVR posted this announcement:

POLL SPECS -8% OF Vermonters Want Out!
Submitted by Rob Williams on Tue, 05/02/2006 - 11:14am.

Greetings friends,

We encourage you to download the POLL SPECS sheet and read about our latest poll for yourself.

And then join us!

Attachment/Size SVRPollData.pdf 63.94 KB [4]

This announcement has been deleted from the SVR site at sometime in the past.  Why?  (Note to SVR:  Don't bother reloading the page to cover your tracks.  The page as it shows today has been preserved.) [5]

The PDF attachment that is referred to in the announcement above was also deleted from the SVR website. (Note to SVR: Same deletion advisory applies hereto.) [6]

I guess the only question that I might have for SVR at this point would be just how deep do they intend to dig this hole that they've gotten themselves into?

NOTE: Just like at SVR, VTCommons has deleted the incriminating poll items that I linked to from their website. Perhaps what they mean when they label themselves as "Vermont's statewide independent news journal" is that when a true fact becomes inconvenient, just disappear it from your archives.

Congrats to Rob Williams, publisher, for achieving a new low for independent journalism ethics.