On Jan. 9, a poll was posted to the page asking, “Do you support BORDER SECURITY along our southern border with a wall or other physical barrier?”

A screenshot taken at 1:44 p.m. that day is making the rounds on Facebook. It shows that 50.3 percent said no, while 49.7 percent said yes. The poll had five days to go. The screenshot shows about 4,300 votes.

The poll was taken down two days later. A search of both Bost’s candidate and congressional Facebook profiles show no sign of it. Bost maintains two separate Facebook pages, as do many politicians, because campaign activity and Congressional business must remain separate.

After the poll was posted, some Facebook users in Bost’s district encouraged acquaintances who were not in support of the wall to vote. The posts stated concerns that the poll was going to be answered primarily by Bost’s supporters and could misrepresent his district.

Poll numbers fluctuated during the two days it was active. Strong support for the wall swung toward opposition. Then, the poll was removed. 

Also on Jan. 9, Bost posted on his congressional profile, thanking people for participating in a tele-town hall where a poll on the border wall was conducted. The post announced the results: 66 percent of those polled were in favor of the wall. The post did not say how many people were polled.

The tele-town hall post has 245 likes, 15 shares and 110 likes as of Wednesday. The screenshot of the deleted poll shows 145 likes. It did not show comments or shares.

Followers for Bost’s congressional profile total 22,436, while followers for his candidate page are 14,572.

When asked about the poll, a Bost spokesman sent the following statement:

“The Bost campaign posted a poll on its Facebook page to gauge the opinions of campaign supporters for building a border wall. This poll was not conducted by our congressional office, which conducted its own surveys of constituents by telephone and email.

“When the Democratic Socialists of America overran the campaign poll and swayed the results, it was suspended. We’re interested in hearing from the people of this district, not out-of-state, liberal activists.” 

The poll was posted in the Southern Illinois Democratic Socialists of America Facebook group two separate times, but the posters did not offer a call to action.

Sam Smucker, co-chair of the Southern Illinois chapter of Democratic Socialists of America, said he voted in the poll, and shared it with his group to allow members the option to weigh in. Smucker said as far as he knows, all of the members of the local DSA chapter are in Bost’s district.

“Rep. Bost is my representative, and I voted in the poll he posted because I wanted to express my opinion,” Smucker said.

“I’m surprised Rep. Bost would take down a poll just because he didn’t like the response from his constituents,” Smucker said. “What’s the point of making a poll if he doesn’t want to hear from the people of his district?”

Bost’s spokesman called the post’s removal a nonissue.

“Southern Illinoisans care about actual issues like border security and funding the government, not some phony story about a survey on a campaign Facebook page,” he said. 

Some constituents commented on posts made by Bost’s congressional profile and asked where the poll went. Others responded to these comments, suggesting that it was removed because of out-of-district political groups were trying to hijack the results.

Constituents of a particular politician are marked on Facebook when users input their address and enable a badge to be placed next to their names on political pages of figures they are represented by.

Money for the border wall has been a sticking point for the GOP and President Donald Trump, who came to Murphysboro last year to stump for Bost, in the debate over a federal budget. Trump has refused to sign a budget that didn’t include $5.7 billion for construction of a wall or physical barrier along the U.S.-Mexico border, sparking a partial government shutdown that is the longest in the country’s history.

Bost released a statement Dec. 20 after voting on a budget that would have funded the government and included money for a border wall.

“The highest responsibility of Congress is to ensure the safety and security of our nation and the American people,” Bost said.

“Not only does this bill avert a shutdown of the federal government, it also makes our nation safer by providing critical funding to strengthen security on our borders. Let me be crystal clear: we must secure our borders, and no threat of a Pelosi shutdown changes that fact.”

Republicans color the debate as a fight over border security, while Democrats have agreed to fund border security in other ways, just not a $5.7 billion physical barrier.

Democrats have proposed $1.3 billion for border security, primarily focusing on technology and support for border agents, according to a Jan. 8 USA Today story.

A recent article published by PBS NewsHour says the effect of border walls are complicated. In the story, Robert C. Bonner, who served as commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection under President George W. Bush, said that physical barriers are only part of a solution — the rest relies on more human solutions, as well as technology.

“Physical barriers are not a strategy. They are part of a strategy,” Bonner said.