Weekend Poll: The weekend poll offered an anomaly. Through the first 196 votes, 152 respondents had voted against the concept of permitless carry (carry of concealed weapons without a permit). That's 77.55% opposed to permitless carry. Statistics for the Huckleberries Online poll rarely change more than a few percent after the first 100 votes. And the weekend poll rarely attracts more than 300 votes. However, from that point, another 645 people voted, overwhelmingly for permitless carry. I suspected that those votes had come from an individual who has figured out how to rig the system to vote over and over. It has happened before. But I talked to a man with ties to the Idaho gun community and the 2nd Amendment Alliance who said he'd encouraged his mailing list of 1,000 to vote. If this was a matter of individuals from around the state, even an organized group voting rather than a single individual gaming the system, then the final outcome was 575 votes for permitless carry (68.37)), 261 against (31.03%), and 5 undecided (0.59%). The first number likely represents regular Huckleberries Online voters. The second number could represent an organized effort to make a voice heard. I'll let you interpret the tea leaves on this one.
Today's Poll: Is Hillary Clinton's candidacy for president haunted by the "bimbo eruptions" of husband Bill's White House?
D.F. (Dave) Oliveria joined The Spokesman-Review in 1984. He currently is a columnist and compiles the Huckleberries Online blog and writes about North Idaho in his Huckleberries column.
