EBC Poll: Only ⅓ Satisfied With Current Senate Field

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EBC Poll: Only ⅓ Satisfied With Current Senate Field
Satisfaction low, but three incumbents lead
Written by McEntire​

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With two days until polls open, the region’s Senate election looks to be a low-key affair. 50% of respondents are not satisfied with the current field of candidates, and the vast majority intend to vote for a 5-person Senate, the minimum allowed by law. Incumbent Senators Prim, Lime, and UPC lead the field, with recently returned citizen JayDee close behind.

This snap poll ran from May 2-3 and had 23 respondents. Senator UPC stood for re-election while the poll was ongoing, Speaker Lime's platform was released just before the poll, and John Laurens' platform was released while the poll was ongoing. These timing issues may affect the levels of support for the candidates and their platforms.

Current Senator Prim is far and away the polling leader, with 87% of respondents saying they intended to vote for his re-election campaign. Speaker Lime earns the vote of ⅔ of respondents, with incumbent Senator UPC - who had an abbreviated term after winning a recent by-election - not far behind. Incumbent Senator Ellenburg only receives support from 34.8% of respondents.

Despite the strong performance of incumbents, this poll shows a stark lack of satisfaction with the field. 50% of respondents said that they were not satisfied, with another 18.2% calling themselves neutral. Only 31.8% approve of the current field of Senate candidates. Perhaps relatedly, voters seem highly inclined to vote for a tiny Senate, with 77.3% voting for the smallest possible Senate size.

The question about platform approval shows that candidate preference and platform approval were pretty tightly linked. Notably, while four candidates received a majority of votes from respondents, only three received majority approval of their platform. Speaker Lime had 42.9% approve of his platform, while 65.2% said that they planned to vote for him anyway. As previously stated, the timing of the poll may have affected the approval of some candidates' platforms.

Spoiler: Comments

I wish we had more dedicated, engaged Europeians willing to participate in the Senate. What is stopping folks?

It's a little sad that we've had very competitive by-elections but none of those candidates are now standing. Instead we're relying upon incumbents to generate a field of candidates, many of whom are probably only standing for re-election so that we can actually have an election. If we had a lot of people running I think most if not all of the incumbents running for re-election would have probably been happy to pass the torch on.

I hope This election is fun and I will give cookies to the winner

We're basically choosing between reelecting the status quo or choosing people who just came back from an eternity of inactivity, so I'm not super excited

Obviously I’d vote for myself

Halfterm UPC letsgooo

Humorous to see some people come back just to run for Senate.

Jaydee and UPC are the only candidates who have written substantial platforms, so they are the only ones who deserve to be elected.

The comments echo the largely dissatisfied numbers of the poll, with voters describing themselves as “not super excited” and the state of the race as “a little sad.” Perhaps speaking for the populace at wide, one voter wondered aloud why more Europeians weren’t running for Senate: “What is stopping folks?”

With many ongoing issues related to the Frontier transition, the next Senate will have a lot on its plate. It remains to be seen how this election will shake out, but with just two days until voting opens, folks are running out of time to jump into the fray.

 

[Pland Adanna]

Great work with such a quick turnaround, McEntire! Interesting results!

I also wasn’t anticipating a conflict of interest emerging when I assigned this article.

 

[JayDee]

I must say I’m surprised by the disparity between support for platform and who people intend to vote for. I’m even more surprised by how little disparity there is with mine given I’ve only recently returned.

Perhaps seeing how people prioritize their vote would be helpful since I remember that being one of the questions.

 

[McEntire]

I must say I’m surprised by the disparity between support for platform and who people intend to vote for. I’m even more surprised by how little disparity there is with mine given I’ve only recently returned.

Perhaps seeing how people prioritize their vote would be helpful since I remember that being one of the questions.

Personal editorializing: I don't like to report on every single question if the results aren't particularly interesting. I find that these "rank your priorities" questions always have the same results. People say they care about platforms and recent activity, and pretend that they don't care about social relationships.

In the interests of transparency though, here we go:

 

[JayDee]

I must say I’m surprised by the disparity between support for platform and who people intend to vote for. I’m even more surprised by how little disparity there is with mine given I’ve only recently returned.

Perhaps seeing how people prioritize their vote would be helpful since I remember that being one of the questions.

Personal editorializing: I don't like to report on every single question if the results aren't particularly interesting. I find that these "rank your priorities" questions always have the same results. People say they care about platforms and recent activity, and pretend that they don't care about social relationships.

In the interests of transparency though, here we go:

I mean the question was asked so it should be presented. Yes it doesn’t provide much insight except that the answers are complete hokum if the meat and bones of the poll is anything to go off of.

 

[Rand]

I must say I’m surprised by the disparity between support for platform and who people intend to vote for. I’m even more surprised by how little disparity there is with mine given I’ve only recently returned.

Perhaps seeing how people prioritize their vote would be helpful since I remember that being one of the questions.

Personal editorializing: I don't like to report on every single question if the results aren't particularly interesting. I find that these "rank your priorities" questions always have the same results. People say they care about platforms and recent activity, and pretend that they don't care about social relationships.

In the interests of transparency though, here we go:

I think Prim's recent platformless campaign shows that many people prioritize recent activity or experience more than they'd like to admit.

 

[McEntire]

I must say I’m surprised by the disparity between support for platform and who people intend to vote for. I’m even more surprised by how little disparity there is with mine given I’ve only recently returned.

Perhaps seeing how people prioritize their vote would be helpful since I remember that being one of the questions.

Personal editorializing: I don't like to report on every single question if the results aren't particularly interesting. I find that these "rank your priorities" questions always have the same results. People say they care about platforms and recent activity, and pretend that they don't care about social relationships.

In the interests of transparency though, here we go:

I mean the question was asked so it should be presented. Yes it doesn’t provide much insight except that the answers are complete hokum if the meat and bones of the poll is anything to go off of.

Meh. Not every question that's asked should be presented, imo. I don't think that poll analysis should just be a direct reading of the results of the poll. I try to suss out relevant questions and an overall narrative, and include the data points that are relevant. Otherwise it wouldn't be analysis, I could just share the link to the poll results.

 

[JayDee]

I must say I’m surprised by the disparity between support for platform and who people intend to vote for. I’m even more surprised by how little disparity there is with mine given I’ve only recently returned.

Perhaps seeing how people prioritize their vote would be helpful since I remember that being one of the questions.

Personal editorializing: I don't like to report on every single question if the results aren't particularly interesting. I find that these "rank your priorities" questions always have the same results. People say they care about platforms and recent activity, and pretend that they don't care about social relationships.

In the interests of transparency though, here we go:

I mean the question was asked so it should be presented. Yes it doesn’t provide much insight except that the answers are complete hokum if the meat and bones of the poll is anything to go off of.

Meh. Not every question that's asked should be presented, imo. I don't think that poll analysis should just be a direct reading of the results of the poll. I try to suss out relevant questions and an overall narrative, and include the data points that are relevant. Otherwise it wouldn't be analysis, I could just share the link to the poll results.

Notice how I didn’t say that

I said it should be presented, but it should go without saying that it should also be analyzed. I’ve never advocated or even done a direct reading of a poll. These data points are relevant because they show a region that doesn’t seem to really know what it wants.

I’d say the start contrast between these answers and the rest of the poll warrants a deeper dive.

 

[Prim]

-snip-

I think Prim's recent platformless campaign shows that many people prioritize recent activity or experience more than they'd like to admit.

Agreed, I think the disparity between those who support my run and those who support my platform also shows that my activity (either in the region as a whole, or the Senate in specific) and experience are a major factor in my top-level numbers.

 

[Lime]

I do find the gap between people who approve of Prim's platform and approve of my platform a little weird considering we both essentially have the exact same platform lol. Especially seeing as mine is arguably slightly more in-depth than Prim's since I did at least briefly mention some legislation such as the Bar Act and my proposal for amending the Holiday Act to add a "Frontier Day." But for all intents and purposes they're pretty much the same platform so the gap seems a bit odd. Unless people are simultaneously ranking their approval of our term in office since our platforms are essentially running on our record. In that case I'd expect to see slightly higher support for Prim, but even then I think the size of the gap is a little weird still.

 

[Rand]

I do find the gap between people who approve of Prim's platform and approve of my platform a little weird considering we both essentially have the exact same platform lol. Especially seeing as mine is arguably slightly more in-depth than Prim's since I did at least briefly mention some legislation such as the Bar Act and my proposal for amending the Holiday Act to add a "Frontier Day." But for all intents and purposes they're pretty much the same platform so the gap seems a bit odd. Unless people are simultaneously ranking their approval of our term in office since our platforms are essentially running on our record. In that case I'd expect to see slightly higher support for Prim, but even then I think the size of the gap is a little weird still.

I feel like a lot of people checked that box based on their preferred candidates not their preferred platforms. I say this as someone who didn't indicate approval of either of your platforms, no offense

 

[Gorundu]

Perhaps speaking for the populace at wide, one voter wondered aloud why more Europeians weren’t running for Senate: “What is stopping folks?”

Uh, the time and commitment needed for the role? I thought I could do it for at least two terms and ended up having to resign halfway through my second term.

 

[Koroniti]

This polls is fascinating to be honest, I'm really going to be interested to see the turnout for the election too.