Journal editors off base on APS split referendum

The controversy over the splitting of the APS is boiling up again. Those who support the split would like to see the issue added to the ballot in the February School Board elections.

Journal editors suggest, link;

The school board should welcome this opportunity to finally see where voters stand on the issue. What's wrong with asking the public to simply weigh in, especially if there is no added cost to taxpayers?

Perhaps there is nothing wrong with adding the question to the ballot if cost is the only consideration. It is not. Cost is in fact, the most specious consideration in deciding whether the issue should appear on the ballot.

There is something very wrong with taking a skewed sample of opinions/votes and then extrapolating the results to an entire community.

In the first place, school board elections routinely attract only a small number of voters. The fact that APS always manages to end up with a polling station in their administrative offices at 6400 Uptown Blvd skews the results even further.

Add to that, that only the voters in Districts 1, 2, and 4 will be allowed to vote; and that two are Westside Districts, and you have a statistically meaningless sample of opinion.

Reason enough to reject the opinion survey at the polls,
even if it is "free".