While Opposition to "The Lens" Remains Firm, New Poll Suggests Voters Are Confused By Ballot Language

It is the chief concern of opponents to "The Lens" design for a new St. Petersburg Pier: how to make it clear to voters that 'Yes' means 'No' and 'No' means 'Yes.'

And while opposition to "The Lens" remains relatively firm, the latest survey from St. Pete Polls commissioned by this blog suggests voters are confused by the ballot language for the referendum to 'Stop the Lens.'

When asked "will you vote Yes or No on the ordinance terminating the Michael Maltzan new Pier design agreement" (which is the exact language voters will see when they cast their ballot) just 51% say they will vote 'Yes.' Thirty-one percent of likely city voters said they would vote 'No.' A full 18% said they were undecided.

In the Bizarro World of St. Pete politics, a 'Yes' vote means no "Lens"; a 'No' vote actually means the project forward should move forward.

These new numbers represent a five-point swing in favor of building "The Lens" from the last time the issue was polled. Six weeks ago, 53% of respondents said they would vote 'Yes', while 28% of likely city voters expressed support for the project. That's down from fourteen points from a similar poll taken on May 1 when 67% of respondents said they would "vote yes to terminate the Lens Pier project."

Let's be clear, opposition to "The Lens" is still strong, but the 'Stop the Lens' crowd has to be at least somewhat worried that its efforts might be undone by tricky ballot language.

Regarding the poll's methodology: The poll was conducted by an automated phone call polling system. The results were then weighted to account for proportional differences between the respondents' demographics and the demographics of the registered voter population in St. Petersburg. The demographics used were: party, race and age. 

The voters polled were chosen at random within the registered voter population inside of the city of St. Petersburg. Only voters that answered that they were planning on voting in the August 27th primary election were asked the questions included in this survey.

The scientific results shown in the summary below have a sample size of 441 respondents and a margin of error of 4.7% at a 95% confidence level.