| Residents
Wary of Biased Survey |
By Leah M. Burfield
Observer Staff Writer |
| On March 13, Rebekah Wood received a strange phone call.
An automated telephone survey asked her questions about Herndon's
upcoming elections for mayor and town council. |
| Although Wood has a Herndon address and a 20170 zip code,
she does not live within the Town of Herndon limits, therefore
making her ineligible to vote in town elections. |
| When the phone call was received, the name "CAZ" appeared
on her caller ID with a 571-522-1332 number. Although she
knew right away that the survey was not real, Wood decided
to stay on the line. |
| "They asked questions such as 'Do you want millions to be
spent on the cultural arts center?' 'Do you want taxpayer
money spent on the day labor site?'" Wood said. "They were
all very biased, very leading questions. You could only answer
by saying yes or no and so there would have been no way of
saying, 'Wait a minute. The millions of dollars is not all
public taxpayer's money.' Which it's not." |
| Wood said that if the caller publishes the results of the
survey, findings are going to be highly skewed and inaccurate
because the company is polling people who do not live in the
town. |
| About three weeks ago, Suzanne Hediger received the same
phone call from the same number. |
| Like Wood, Hediger does not live in the Town of Herndon
which makes her ineligible to vote. |
| "I didn't think the survey was a real survey," Hediger said.
"I suspected it was an automated political advertisement pretending
to be a poll." |
| Out of curiosity, Hediger researched the phone number online
and traced it to a Herndon-based survey and database company,
ccAdvertising. |
| According to Hediger, the business conducts "surveys" all
over the country, polling for primarily political issues and
market research. |
| Dennis Husch, candidate for Town Council, said he had also
heard about the unanimous phone calls and believes it sheds
a negative light on the town's political atmosphere. |
| "Herndon has a lot of traditions when it comes to elections,"
Husch said. "Some of them are silly, some of them are not
so silly. We've gotten unanimous phone polls and those things
are just not what goes on in Herndon." |
| The Observer was able to contact Gabriel Joseph, a representative
with ccAdvertising, April 4. |
| "My clients are confidential so I have no comment," Joseph
said. |
| No information was provided, but Joseph's remarks indicate
he may have known about the calls. |
| Whether or not ccAdvertising is the company conducting the
polls, they offer a way to be put on a do not call list. Visit
http://www.ccadvertising.biz/nav.asp. |
