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Residents looking for a respite from those ubiquitous election campaign calls may be out of luck, especially if they are customers of Cox Communications' high-definition cable television.

Cox has been conducting a phone survey of its high-definition customers, which has some residents and cable-access advocates howling that they are biased. The calls, they say, intend to show that high-definition customers want cable-access channels eliminated in order to get more high-definition and on-demand channels.

The phone survey, which has occurred during the past few weeks, asks customers about a series of seven options, which begins with an option of eight public-access channels and little to no high-definition and on-demand channels.

The following questions continue lowering the number of access channels and increasing the number of high-def and on-demand channels while asking customer preferences.

The seventh question asks how preferable one public-access channel with no repeating content — all new episodes and no reruns — would be when coupled with 48 or more high-definition channels.

Finally, the survey asks if the customers are against the city's opposition of lowering taxes on cable customers from more than 8 percent to 5 percent, which it says is state law.

Someone called the City Council comment line on Nov. 7 to complain about the survey, said Ann Strine, the city's information technology director.

"All the questions were setting up a trade of either you get high-definition channels or you get community-access channels," said Tucsonan Sharon Kha, who also got the phone survey two days before Election Day. "The way the questions were set up, that was the choice."

Cox won't talk specifically about this survey. Anne Doris, Cox's Southern Arizona vice president and system manager, said Cox periodically does research on its customers and "in all likelihood there is a survey going on."

Cox has pushed statewide to cut the number of cable-access channels it is required to provide — reducing the number of cable-access channels on the many cable systems it has in the Phoenix area.

The company helped author a state law that takes effect July 1, 2007, that limits the number of public-access channels required to four.

Tucson has nine cable-access channels, and the city is renegotiating its cable franchise agreement with Cox.

Kha she didn't realize at first that it was a Cox survey but said she later figured it out because of the way the questions were asked. "I felt manipulated by the questions," Kha said.

She said Cox asked the wrong questions because it's possible to have more on-demand channels without cutting public-access channels.

"The survey will say that Tucsonans prefer high-def over cable access," Kha predicted.

Michael DiMaria, Cox's local director of government relations, disputed that assessment and said there's no way to determine the outcome until the survey is completed.

"That's inferring a lot," DiMaria said of the notion that the survey will say high-def customers want the number of cable-access channels cut.

"We're always doing research to find out what our customers' expectations are," DiMaria said. "We've got to know what they want."

Sam Behrend, the executive director of Access Tucson who is also a high-definition subscriber, said he got the call last week, and compared it to a political "push poll," which is a form of negative campaigning in which a caller will ask respondents hypothetical questions about a candidate intended to negatively influence their opinions of them.

"To me, it's biased, it's leaning, but worst of all, it's offering a false choice," Behrend said.

Councilwoman Karin Uhlich said she expects Cox to gather all the information it can to make the best case for the company during the cable franchise negotiations.

However, Uhlich said the city's team is very sophisticated and would look closely at any Cox survey provided to the city, along with doing its own research.

"In some ways, I would expect them to do this," Uhlich said. "That doesn't mean the city will take that info at face value. … We won't be duped."