Brown pollster guilty of malpractice, says Fung's manager

I learned some of the basics of scientific polling years ago when I took a summer course in Elementary Statistics at my beloved Community College of Rhode Island- once known- and I say this with trembling pride as R-E-J-E-C-T. (R.I.J.C.– for Rhode Island Junior College) A school just right for my income at least at the time (1977 graduate).

An example of a Bell Shaped
Standard Distribution Curve Chart

The student is quickly introduced to the iconic STANDARD DISTRIBUTION CURVE, of bell shaped elegance. Now and then The Bell Curve can serve the evil purposes of bigoted "special interests". The basic idea is simple enough: a truly random sample- in fact as few as 30 samples– can correctly reflect the picture of the larger group.

Headline: "Fung challenges methodology of Brown poll" (Oct. 25, Providence Journal, page A3) cries Fung's campaign manager: "The methodology and weighting are absurd".

There is well known principle in physics known as quantum uncertainty: when you try to pin down, for example, the position of an electron, you must understand that the very act of measurement ALTERS the thing being measured.

In the same way, a highly respected opinion poll released so soon before election can effect the outcome of an election. Why show up to vote for your favorite candidate if the polls don't give him or her an incremental chance of winning? Hence the anxiety over poll results.

Community College of Rhode Island
(CCRI) is the largest community college
in New England and was founded in
1964 as Rhode Island Junior College,"RIJC"

Could Fung's campaign manager, Patrick Sweeney, be right? The problem is really that too many registered voters don't vote- a scandal for democracy. If very few of the voters show up at the polls on election day, the election will clearly be decided-not by any jackass poll- but by the energy and passion of a candidate's following. I suspect that Gina Raimondo's fans are more enthusiastic- (ah, divine enthusiasm!) - than Mayor Fung's.

I can see how enthusiastic people are for Vincent "Buddy" Cianci. Elorza himself, leading in the latest Brown poll, strikes me as very able and NOT lacking in integrity. But he comes across as a DEAD FISH politician. Which fits his VILLAGE ATHEIST reputation (this should not be an issue!). How can anyone voting for this Harvard Law School graduate possibly love him as much as they, no doubt, loathe "Buddy" Cianci?

Would it not be funny if the Brown pollster, James Morone, after the election is faced with a rather humorless MALPRACTICE SUIT?

Send him to R-E-J-E-C-T to take a remedial course in elementary statistics. I mean send him to the Community College of Rhode Island, celebrating its 50th Anniversary: Five decades of making working class Rhode Islanders smarter- if not much more employable. I know.