Scott Underwood: Daily poll questions take the temperature of THB readers

May 14—How do you feel about The Herald Bulletin's poll questions?

We love them. They're fun to create, and it's interesting to see what respondents have to say. Although the results are by no means scientific, they take the temperature of an important portion of the community — our readers.

Some of our polls pose important and controversial public policy questions. Others are really just for fun. The polls are often, though not always, related to the editorial published the same day.

We publish a new poll question with each of our five print editions weekly. You can find and respond to poll questions by scrolling toward the bottom of our home page at heraldbulletin.com.

We report immediate results from each poll question in the next print edition. Typically 150-300 responses roll in over the first 24 hours. The poll question in Saturday's paper has a longer shelf life, since the next print edition doesn't come out until Tuesday.

Here are some particularly interesting poll questions and results from the past several weeks, with the total responses drawn by each option:

Q: Which is a bigger concern for motorist safety, drunken driving or distracted driving?

—They're both huge concerns 148

—Drunken driving is a bigger concern 5

—Distracted driving is a bigger concern 36

—Neither of them is a big concern 6

—Not sure 0

The surprise to me here was that 36 of the 41 people who said that one or the other was the bigger concern chose distracted driving over drunken driving. I'm guessing people are encountering more drivers who are obviously distracted than those who are behaving in a drunken manner.

Q: What is your gender and did you play at least one varsity sport as a high school senior?

—Female, yes 15

—Female, no 52

—Male, yes 47

—Male, no 54

This question was published the same day as an editorial mentioning that more boys than girls play sports across the country. The results of the poll certainly dovetail with those national statistics. I'm guessing that opportunities in girls' high school athletics were limited, particularly for many of our older female respondents.

Q: How much do you know about "forever chemicals"?

—Quite a bit 25

—A little bit 57

—Never heard of them before 82

Exactly half the respondents were totally unaware of forever chemicals. Those who work in public and environmental health would be troubled by these results.

Q: Through your words and actions, is the world a better place?

—Yes 74

—No 62

—I'm not sure 41

I'm guessing the preponderance of "No/I'm not sure" responses points to how overwhelming the world's problems seem and a feeling of helplessness to make a difference.

Q: How do you feel about roundabouts?

—Love 'em 38

—They're OK 72

—Hate 'em 104

—Not sure 7

What? There's very little stopping and starting with roundabouts; I think they're great. This is a classic case of people generally being skeptical about things they aren't accustomed to.

Q: What should be the minimum age to vote?

—16 years old, 4

—18 years old, 187

—21 years old, 107

—25 years old, 25

—Other 7

Another one where our readers reject the idea of change, particularly letting 16-year-olds cast ballots.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy seeing our poll results. Thank you if you are a consistent participant.

And, as always, let me know if you have suggestions for poll questions.

Editor Scott Underwood's column appears Tuesdays. Like him on Facebook. Contact him at scott.underwood@heraldbulletin.com or 640-4845.