LeadPhilippines a private sector group that espouses critical analysis of issues affecting the Philippines has come out with an online survey on -- surveys. The group asks:

Were you ever interviewed by or a respondent to either Pulse Asia or Social Weather Station (SWS) in any of their 2010 Philippines Presidential Surveys?

I've been wondering about those Pulse Asia and SWS surveys for the longest time now. I have never met an actual, real-life respondent of these surveys or anyone who knows someone who have been interviewed by these survey firms.

I plan to participate I hope you will too. Anyway, for more details go visit the LeadPhilippines website.

Speaking of surveys here's one from another think-tank, Ibon Foundation Inc. This group supposedly conducted a nationwide survey on poll automation and electoral fraud. Here's an excerpt from a report published in The Business Mirror:

Ibon said in its latest nationwide survey from October 2 to 8 among 1,496 respondents, 56.5 percent out of the 88.5 percent respondents who are aware of the poll-automation program believe widespread fraud will still be a fact of elections.

The survey used a multistage probability sampling scheme and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percent.

Voters were asked, “Are you aware of the Commission on Elections’ poll-automation program that is intended to be in the upcoming 2010 elections?” and “In your opinion, will poll automation address the problem of alleged electoral fraud?”

The results showed that 88.5 percent of total respondents were aware of automation, but there were 10.63 percent who were not aware. Around 0.87 percent had no answer.

On whether poll automation will address the problem of alleged electoral fraud, the results showed that 56.5 percent said “No” and 25.76 percent said “Yes.” The survey also showed that around 17.52 percent were unsure while 0.23 percent had no answer.

The press releases of doom certainly keep coming. That's all I have to say about this at this time. If you want to get a sense of why I strongly support poll automation and I think surveys like this are garbage check out these posts of mine:

Track Record of Failure vs. Evidence of Success

Comelec Inviting Doubters Naysayers (features a photo of a misinformed poll automation critic)