Poll: should Mableton and South Cobb incorporate into a city?

white check mark on green selection box in poll on Mableton South Cobb incorporationimage of generic poll check mark. Public domain image retrieved from WIkimedia Commons.

This is the first in a series of polls about issues affecting Cobb County.  “Should Mableton and South Cobb form a city” was chosen as the first poll.  Please read the section at the bottom about why online polls are not very accurate, but why we’ve decided to conduct them anyhow.

Should Mableton and South Cobb form a city?

There is an effort underway to form the southern part of the county, the unincorporated areas roughly south of Hicks Road, into a city. The advantages put forward by supporters include local control over zoning and code enforcement issues, stopping the City of Smyrna from annexing further into Mableton, and the presence of local elected officials who represent fewer people and who live closer to them.  The primary disadvantage put forward has been the possibility of higher taxes.

If you want to read further about the effort to incorporate Mableton and South Cobb before taking the poll, you can read our coverage by following this link, or you can visit the website of the South Cobb Alliance.

Take the Poll

[yop_poll id=”1″]

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Feel free to leave a comment at the bottom of the page

Feel free to comment on this issue at the bottom of the page.  The only thing I ask is that people not be rude to each other.

How meaningful are online polls?

Online polls are not scientific, and in fact they seldom accurately represent the views of the general public.

They are easily manipulated by what’s known as “brigading” (getting partisans of one side of an issue to swarm the poll in large numbers).  They are easy to cheat on (voting more than once). And most importantly, they are only a cross-section of the website they are posted on.  Think what would happen if you conduct a poll about Donald Trump on the liberal Daily Kos?  Or about Alexadra Ocasio-Cortez on the conservative website Breitbart?

So why are we doing online polls, if they aren’t accurate?

There are two reasons we’re doing this, one lofty and the other crass.  Both have some truth to them.

The loftier reason we’re doing these polls is that they encourage reader engagement and discussion of issues presented on the Courier.

The crass way of putting it is that reader engagement drives traffic to the site.  By that measure we’re doing the same thing Buzzfeed does.

And maybe, just maybe, readers will take a good hard look at the issue we’re polling on, and improve their ability to make informed decisions.

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