OKPNS Questions OK County Commissioner Race Poll Results
“SoonerPoll provides opinion research and voter identification services to clients other than TvPoll.com. Bill Shapard’s SoonerPoll is the most accurate and trusted public opinion research firm in Oklahoma.” – TVPoll.com website
An investigation by OKPNS shows that SoonerPoll.com’s motto of being the “most accurate and trusted public opinion research firm in Oklahoma” is more a slogan than grounded in actual fact. Oklahoma County Commissioner poll results released on KWTV-Channel 9 and The McCarville Report Online yesterday showed Brian Maughan receiving 34.7 percent, incumbent Brent Rinehart 19.5 percent, and J.D. Johnston 18.1 percent. About 28 percent said they were undecided.
According to the below chart from Survey USA – a very respected polling firm in its own right- Soonerpoll.com is ranked an abysmal 33rd out of 41 polling firms surveyed for accuracy, just above CBS News. (Remember Dan Rather anyone?) Soonerpoll.com has a whopping median error rate of 9.0!
No one takes Shappard seriously. He’s a joke who makes it up as he goes. KWTV and Griffin Communications are damaging their own credibility by associating with this hack.
Comment by Bubba — July 23, 2008 @ 7:52 am
surprising Griffin is a fine Oklahoma owned company
the real gay target is Bible belt morality if you read the liberal rants…Oklahoma has become a battlefield for the national GLBT contributors. According to their media they think we are ignorant undergovernmenteducated hicks.
Comment by F. Green-Onions — July 23, 2008 @ 11:12 am
I’m shocked an OU professor would associate with these folks. Disgraceful. People need to call Boren about this. Soonerpoll or TVPoll is almost the worst polling company in America based on these numbers. What a joke.
Comment by Soonerman — July 23, 2008 @ 2:28 pm
Did I miss something, or is CMA CHS, WRS or any other Oklahoma firm listed at all?
Comment by Wondering — July 23, 2008 @ 7:03 pm
I was wondering the same thing about CHS and especially WRS. Chris Wilson’s work is top notch and nationally known (More reknown than sooner poll, at least)
Bill can’t get business on internal polls anymore because of his shoddy work. CMA and AH Strategies don’t let their clients near Sooner Poll.
It’s not that Bill does a bad job, it’s just sloppy. When it comes to internal polls, MoE is king and you can’t make informed decisions on 7% or 8%. Even 5% is hard enough.
But TV doesn’t care too much. They want cheap and mostly right. That’s why KOTV probably still uses him. He’s not expensive, and it’s mostly correct.
Comment by The_real_powerbroker — July 24, 2008 @ 10:21 am
CHS is not listed as we do work for real clients. Shappard can’t get work from clients running for office as his work is a joke and no one takes his number seriously. He was off on the Tulsa Mayors race by over 20 points and he was caught making up numbers by a former employee who left over the episode.
Comment by Pat McFerrron — July 24, 2008 @ 2:33 pm