To the editor:

On Sunday evening, Aug. 19, I received a phone call in which the caller asserted that he was conducting a poll. I agreed to participate.

After some initial innocuous questions he arrived at the heart of his poll by stating information about “positions” held by Maine’s 2012 U.S. Senate candidates.

Starting with Republican candidate Charles Summers Jr., the first assertion was that Summers had been endorsed by the Maine Chamber of Commerce — obviously false, since the MCC does not endorse political candidates.

The remaining three or four statements may have accurately stated Summers’ positions.

Then the four or five statements about Democrat candidate Cynthia Dill may have accurately stated Dill’s positions.

Finally, the four or five purported statements about independent candidate Angus King turned out to be direct rehashes of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce overt misrepresentations of former Gov. King’s actions and positions when he was Maine’s leader.

The caller declined to identify for whom the poll was being conducted.

This kind of anonymous, misleading push polling is destructive of our electoral system and beneath the standards which Maine voters hold.

Ervin D. Snyder

Brunswick