boxtops, I used to have paid-for Norton, and it was a real nuisance. It wouldn't let me look at the Adverts section on AB, for a start.
I gather it's got a lot better. But the free ones are just as good, honestly; you don't need to pay anything.
As far as having a poll goes, I don't know if it would help. I'd vote for Avast (plus free Malwarebytes once a week as SlackAlice says), but I'm well aware most people are perfectly happy with MSE.
I'd say the short answer is just to install one and see how it goes. All of them "work" in the sense that they keep viruses at bay; the only problems I had was that some of them worked too well.