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What’s new: The organization Public Policy Polling surveyed 1,133 registered voters about the need for a backup system for GPS. Despite using a series of VERY leading questions in an attempt to persuade voters of the need, less than half of respondents found all but one of the arguments for a GPS backup “very convincing.” On the one question that dealt with first responders’ ability to find the person in an emergency, only 54% found the argument “very convincing.”
Why it’s important: The poll showed how little members of the general public understand the importance of GPS and the need for an alternative for when GPS signals are not available.
What else to know:
- The poll was sponsored by NextNav in a bid to support its petition with the FCC, and perhaps to further its efforts to get more investors.
- The poll is a case study of how to NOT survey people for their opinions. It provides all kinds of leading questions and desperately tries to elicit the answers the sponsor wanted.
- The pollsters also had to combine “very convincing” and “somewhat convincing” to get numbers in the 80% range that NextNav could use in its press releases.
- The poll was conducted by telephone interview and text. If respondents replied “not convincing” or “not sure” to the questions, they would essentially be telling the pollster “I don’t believe what you just told me.” Most people are reluctant to be that confrontational in any direct exchange with another person.
We wish our public education efforts were more successful and the numbers NextNav is touting were indicative of reality. Unfortunately, even a cursory reading of the poll shows that is not the case.
From: Jim Williams, Public Policy Polling
To: Interested Parties Subject: By a Ten-to-One Margin – Voters Across the United States Support a Ground-Based Backup to GPS*
Date: January 30, 2025
*Ed note – If you hammer at them long enough they will say “ok.”
