Trump Calls for Investigation of Pollster Who Claimed Iowa Would Flip

There will once again be calls for pollsters to get it right after this election, but I don’t believe the polls were off by as much as many people are claiming.

When I made my election prediction, I was being conservative, but I still had Trump getting at least 292 electoral votes based on my evaluation of the polls.

There was one poll, however, that was definitely off, and it resulted in the resignation of J. Ann Selzer, and now Trump wants her investigated.

It’s Not About the Numbers

Selzer was way off, predicting that Harris was going to take Iowa, which I had stated was never going to happen.

Selzer’s poll was the only poll that suggested such a thing, with other polls clearly showing this as an outlier.

There is no exact science to polling, and people often lie when they answer these polls, not to mention that in this environment, many Trump supporters refuse to take the polls.

Selzer’s prediction was way off, as Trump won Iowa 56-42%.

Trump is now accusing Selzer of creating “great distrust and uncertainty at a very critical time.”

Trump further claimed that “She knew exactly what she was doing.” He went on to accuse Selzer of possible “election fraud,” adding, “An investigation is fully called for!”

I can tell you flat out, that is never going to happen, and Trump is being ridiculous for calling for an investigation of a poll that produced an outcome that he did not like.

Selzer, who had Harris leading Trump 47-44%, posted, "I'll continue to be puzzled by the biggest miss of my career."

She added, "It comes down to what theories we have that we can test with data, and theories that are speculative where no data exists for a credible test, at least for now.

"Nothing is more rewarding than figuring out what went wrong."

Anyone who saw that poll knew it was an outlier, especially since it was the only recent poll that had Harris within six points of Trump.

Outliers happen, as it is the sheer luck of the draw when polling a mere 800 people by phone in a state where more than 1.6 million people cast a vote in this election.

Polls, at least to me, are about trends, not hard numbers, and I stated many times over the last two weeks of the election that Trump had all the momentum and I expected him to win.

Selzer missed… it’s that plain and simple, but it was because she had a biased sample, not because she did anything wrong.

She has since resigned from her position, so she paid a price for getting it wrong, but to call for an investigation is utterly ridiculous.