How would you vote if there had been no polls?

When I ask my Democratic friends who they believe is the best candidate for governor, all save one, respond Oz Griebel.  When I ask them who they plan to vote for, they all respond “Ned Lamont.”

I ask why.  The answer is universal, Oz Griebel can’t win and they fear Bob Stefanowski .

When I ask my Republican friends who they believe is the best candidate for governor, all save none, respond Oz Griebel.  When I ask them who they plan to vote for, they respond “Bob Stefanowski.” I ask why.

The answer is universal, Oz Griebel can’t win and they fear Ned Lamont.

My survey may be small, yet I venture to extrapolate it to the greater Connecticut electorate.  We live in a time when we truly believe we can, and have to,  get into the minds of the general electorate to ‘game the system.’  As if the election for Connecticut’s governor was ever decided by one vote.

I often hear my friends in both parties say that the Democrats and Republicans are corrupt, inept or both.  They long for a third party, an independent leader to unite the best ideas for Connecticut.  I pose one last question to my Democratic-certain/Republican-certain friends:

How would you vote if there were no polls? How would you vote if you did not know the ‘odds’ of the election?

The answer is nearly universal . . .  Oz Griebel.

I am fascinated. But alas, the polls do exist and we are left to make a choice and not a decision — a vote in fear rather than on one rooted in reason.

So what keeps Connecticut voters from progressing? Why can’t we vote our conscience? Perhaps we do not understand what the polls are telling us and therefore we have become too afraid of what we think they say.

William Schumann lives in West Hartford.