HOW WE MADE THE SURVEY HAPPEN
In June, we reported the release of a national survey that was largely good news for the FAIRtax. In that survey, a bipartisan majority of 58% of those questioned favored replacing the current income tax system with a national sales tax. Only 28% opposed the idea. The survey represents a cross-section of voters and has a credible sample size. Here is a link to the press release about the survey that you can send to your representatives in D.C.: https://fairtax.org/email-letter/new-national-survey-majority-of-voters-support-overhaul-of-federal-tax-system-including-eliminating-the-income-tax-and-irs.html.
So, how did this survey come to pass? We had wanted to try a survey for several months. Our volunteer media and marketing expert is Rich Germaine from Washington State. Rich worked on a team with Jade Walle, our CPA from Colorado, and former Congressman and bill sponsor, John Linder to come up with the best way to make it happen.
They first picked ActiVote, which ranks in the top two of the five most accurate pollsters. Rich says that ActiVote has three technology professionals who excelled in the software industry and have since retired. Their company tracks elections down to the local school board level using a panel to conduct surveys.
ActiVote’s price was right too—no charge. Their passion is to see every American involved in voting. We went ahead with ActiVote and got a good result. The only problem was that their sample size was too small. To do a poll with a large enough sample size to give us the accuracy we wanted, it was clear that we needed to find a paid polling company and a contributor to fund it.
Most large contributors prefer to fund particular projects rather than just contribute to our general overhead, so having a specific project in mind made it easier to find the funding we needed. Our Florida State Director, Paul Livingston, secured a contributor. The contribution qualified for tax-deductible treatment, and we received the donation through our National Tax Research Committee.
With the new funding in place, Rich Germaine contacted the cofounder of Quantus Insights. Quantus, along with ActiVote, is among the top three most accurate pollsters in the country.
With Quantus, we had better control over the polling questions. The challenge then was to get enough respondents to participate. We exceeded our goal of 1,200 respondents, which we considered the minimum for a credible survey. The results showed that we still have some work to do in making people aware of the FAIRtax, but overall, the numbers were quite encouraging.
A clear majority, including 52% of Democrats and 51% of independents, favor replacing today’s tax system with a national sales tax. That’s a powerful result, and one you can use to help persuade your elected representatives to support the FAIRtax. We strongly encourage everyone to send a copy of this survey to your US Senators and your Congressional representative urging them to support the FAIRtax.
This survey did show that we still have work to do in making people aware of the FAIRtax. Overall, only 24% of respondents had heard of the FAIRtax, but the survey found a bright spot in that regard. Among those under age 45, over a third of them had heard of the FAIRtax. That’s encouraging, but we still need your help in spreading the word about the FAIRtax.
Please inform your elected officials, friends, neighbors, family, and colleagues about the FAIRtax and share this survey with them. I would love to hear about your efforts to spread the word and the responses you get.
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WE'VE GOT YOU COVERED – IF YOU LET US KNOW.
As a reminder, event insurance coverage is available, but you must let us know. Once the event is underway, it's too late. If you are planning an event, let me know the who, what, when, and where, and I will get you a certificate of insurance.
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TAKE BACK CONTROL!
[1] You can design your own business card. I had mine printed at https://www.vistaprint.com. Here’s mine. Please clear your design first with our Marketing and Communications Team Leader, Randy Fischer, randy.fischer@fairtax.org. Randy turns requests around quickly. We need to know where our logos and service marks are going.
🇺🇸 Call For Pictures & WriteUps - We need more of you to send in pictures and news. If you have something to share, please send your material to me, Jim.Bennett@FAIRtax.org, (908) 578-4975, or fax (908) 598-2888. When others see your activity, they are inspired, and the process snowballs. When the process snowballs, Congress Members, Senators, and even the President start to listen.