EARL WATT

   • Leader & Times

Gravis Marketing, a well-known polling firm, was recently commissioned in Seward County to do an independent scientific poll on corporate wind farming in Seward County.

According to the poll, only 38 percent of respondents support corporate wind farming in Seward County, and 72 percent believed there should be a public vote before allowing corporate wind farming in Seward County.

The poll randomly contacted 206 Seward County registered voters and had a plus or minus range of 6.8 percent.

When broken down by party, 51 percent of Democrats supported corporate wind farming in Seward County while only 35 percent of Republicans supported it.

Both parties favored a public vote before allowing corporate wind farming, with 60 percent of Democrats wanting a vote, and 76 percent of Republicans wanting a public vote.

The polling took place July 14-16.

According to Gravis Marketing COO Tech Bobby Hymel, the poll made one point obvious.

“The results are pretty clear,” Hymel said. “Seventy-two percent sends a pretty clear message on voting on this issue.”

Hymel said a more in-depth poll might have garnered additional information, but that this poll was very unbiased and conducted in a way to “gain sentiment on the ground.”

“This poll had a pretty limited scope,” he said. “The main question, as far as the reason we conducted this, was to gauge people’s appetite for a wind farming vote before wind farming is implemented. That was clearly in favor of having some control of destiny in their community.”

Gravis Polling has been conducting polls across the nation since 2012, ranging from presidential polls to local issues. Some of the polling is for public consumption and others are to assist political campaigns.

“We have a wide swath of polling political, municipal and governmental,” Hymel said. “We poll several hundred times per year, from wind farms to the presidency.”