It has been 20-years since De Dutch Pannekoek House Restaurants let people predict the results of the provincial election by choosing a burger named after the running Candidates. However, as of next Wednesday, people will be able to make an order and let a clerk behind the counter know their candidate of choice.

The poll originated in 1963 when co-founder of De Dutch, John Dys, decided the poll would sneak under the radar, as straw polls were illegal in B.C. from 1939 until the early 80s.

Currently customers can buy four burgers, the Campbell burger for the B.C. Liberals the James burger for the BC NDP, the Sterk burger for the greens and another burger labelled other. All candidate burgers are De Dutch’s own Frying Dutchman burger and cost $5.

“We’re just having fun with it,” said Bill Waring, De Dutch president.

The decision to bring back the polls came after discovering old photos while cleaning up the restaurant, said Daring. “Internally it’s a lot of fun for people who worked in the restaurants, the customers like it, it’s just entertainment,” he said.

The polls have been on average 10 per cent within the actual results of the election, but the poll itself is just a way to make money during the campaign, said Dennis Pilon, professor of political science at the University of Victoria.

“The burger polls are useless and just a way that businesses can try to cash in an election event,” said Pilon.

He then went on to criticize polling in its entirety saying some polling is inaccurate, burgers or not.

“On polling, a great deal of it is actually inaccurate, and increasingly so,” Pilon said.

He explained that polling companies need to change the way information is collected as modern technology has rustled older methods.

“With changes in how people live, fewer and fewer land lines, fewer people answering cold calls, polling is going through a crisis in its methodology.”

Morgan J. Modjeski reports for The Tyee.