Unlike most things at Tech, poll is unscientific
David Terraso
Institute Communications and Public Affairs
It wasn’t exactly “Dewey Defeats Truman,”
but a straw poll posted on Georgia Tech’s main
Web page in the days leading up to the presidential
election predicted a different outcome to the 2004 race.
Close to 29,000 votes were cast for one of three presidential
candidates — George W. Bush, John Kerry or Ralph
Nader — in the informal poll known as Buzzpoll,
on Tech’s homepage. Kerry edged out the incumbent
Bush at the last minute with 14,522 votes to Bush’s
12,944. Nader garnered 1,481 votes.
Buzzpoll is a new feature of Georgia Tech’s newly
redesigned homepage, which was launched August 25. The
presidential poll was the ninth Buzzpoll and by far
the most popular.
“The Buzzpoll is a simple function that we’ve
incorporated in an attempt to increase interactivity
with our users,” said Jeff Smith, a Web developer
in Institute Communications
and Public Affairs. “It is a non-scientific
tool to gauge our site visitors’ opinions on a
wide assortment of issues. Repeat voters are not prohibited
from exercising a ‘heavy mouse,’ so the
results must be taken with several grains of salt.“
Still, Buzzpoll reflected the closeness of the presidential
race.
“It was a poll that got a dramatic spike in interest
and brought in a lot of visitors to Georgia Tech’s
Web site just so they could weigh in on a poll,”
Smith said.
Despite its informal tone, the poll was not without
controversy. Smith received several e-mails concerning
the absence of Libertarian candidate Michael Peroutka,
who was on the ballot in Georgia, while Nader was not.
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