Friday, August 12, 2011

The 53 Percent Solution....The Stenographers Crank-Up

LegitimizeThis!
ExpectationsGaloreVille


Well, well, well....

It looks like Diamond Jim's Flaherty's shake-down .....errrrr....'reminder' about the $1.6 billion dollar extortion has been knocked off the front pages by, as we predicted yesterday, a whole lot of stenography by the proMedia herd.

To wit:

BC residents cast ballots in controversial vote

Macleans.ca (blog) - ‎38 minutes ago‎
More than 1.6 million BC voters mailed back their ballots in the heated referendum over the HST, according to Elections BC. The provincial agency started mailing ballots on June 13 to the three million eligible voters. The return deadline was extended ...

1.6 million BC voters return HST ballots

Vancouver Sun - ‎2 hours ago‎
Workers at the HST drop-off centre gather the ballots, August 5th, at Vancouver's City Square mall. VICTORIA — Elections BC said Thursday that more than 1.6 million voters returned their ballots on the province's referendum on the Harmonized Sales Tax ...

HST ballots runneth over

Victoria Times Colonist - Richard Watts - ‎3 hours ago‎
Just over half of BC's registered voters cast ballots in the referendum on the harmonized sales tax, Elections BC said Thursday, prompting both tax supporters and opponents to voice optimism. ...

More than 1.6 million vote in BC HST referendum

Globe and Mail - Tamsyn Burgmann - ‎19 hours ago‎
Almost as many British Columbians voted in the mail-in HST referendum as those who cast ballots in the last provincial election, despite a postal strike and the possibility of summertime lethargy. More than 1.6-million voting packages were sent back to ...

More than half BC's registered voters cast HST ballot

The Province - Sean Sullivan - ‎19 hours ago‎
More than 1.6 million registered voters submitted an HST ballot package by the Aug. 5 deadline, according to early reports from Elections BC. More than 1.6 million British Columbians participated ...

1.6 million BC voters weighed in on HST

CTV.ca - ‎20 hours ago‎
More than 1.6 million British Columbian voters cast ballots in the Harmonized Sales Tax referendum, according to early numbers released Thursday by Elections BC. That's roughly the same number who voted in the 2009 provincial election. ...

1.6 million cast ballots in HST referendum

CBC.ca - ‎20 hours ago‎
Beginning of Story Content More than 1.6 million registered voters returned their HST referendum ballot packages by the deadline, according to Elections BC. "To put the HST referendum in perspective as far as the 1.6 million registered voters that ...

Officials await final referendum ballots

Victoria Times Colonist - ‎Aug 11, 2011‎
Officials at Elections BC continued to wait Wednesday for ballots cast in the referendum on the harmonized sales tax to be sent in from remote areas of the province. Don Main, spokesman for Elections BC, said before the organization can release the ...

HST results a toss-up as voters weigh in

MetroNews Canada - ‎9 hours ago‎
52.6 per cent of registered voters cast HST referendum ballot Fate of controversial tax to be decided around Aug. 25 Like two sides of a coin, the fate of the harmonized sales tax seems to be a tale of halves. Elections BC announced Thursday that more ...

HST turnout has both sides bragging

www.kamloopsnews.ca - Robert Koopmans - ‎14 hours ago‎
Both sides in BC's HST battle consider the number of ballots cast in the recent referendum as a positive sign for their side. Chad Moats, the local organizer of the anti-HST campaign, said he thought the number of mail-in ballots ...


Now.....

When you read/hear/see the associated bits of bloviating regarding what this means for the actual outcome that are sure to follow, please remember that no reputable polling firm would touch that one with a 10 foot (i.e. 3.1 metre) barge pol(l)e.

Thus, the predictions from our readers Mr. Beer 'N Hockey (~1 million British Columbians make like Ray Bradbury's firemen in F-451) or Burgess (E-BC is running an advance legitimization wurlitzer to prepare us for a resounding 'No' result) are as legitimate as any from the puffed-up pro-punditry.

OK?

.

2 comments:

Norm Farrell said...

Then there are the puffed-up amateur pundits who say Elections BC cannot be trusted to supervise the vote and the count.

BTW, can you remember any other issue that polling firms have been unwilling to address? Most have existing online panels that can be accessed at very low cost. For example, from one of the polling agencies:
"Data for the Ipsos Reid BC Online Express are collected through random sampling of our +200,000 member online panel."

I've heard the polling companies did not poll on this issue because they chose not to for marketing reasons. Meaning that they have to satisfy their largest customer and staying quiet was the compromise.

RossK said...

Most interesting Norm.

If that is, indeed, the case does that mean that some person, or persons, can, perhaps, make an actual educated guess at the result?

.