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A pollster who gained attention for her October Iowa poll showing Kamala Harris leading Donald Trump now suggests that her findings may have unintentionally boosted Republican turnout in the state, contributing to Trump’s decisive victory in the state.
In October, J. Ann Selzer’s Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll showed Harris ahead of Trump by 3 percentage points in a state that had been a reliable win for the Republican candidate in the past two presidential elections.
The poll gained attention in the public eye, with many pundits viewing it as a sign of growing Democratic momentum, Fox News reported. However, when the election results came in, Trump won Iowa by a 13-point margin.
Following the results, Selzer has faced criticism and scrutiny over her poll’s accuracy, with some accusing her of manipulating the data.
“My inbox and my voice mail have been full of questions the last few days — those who wanted to know why I “manipulated” the data to show a false Harris lead, and those who wondered if the data were too good to be true,” Seltzer wrote for the Des Moines Register.
In response, she suggested that her poll may have inadvertently motivated Republicans to go out and vote for Trump in fear of a Harris victory.
“I told more than one news outlet that the findings from this last poll could actually energize and activate Republican voters who thought they would likely coast to victory,” she wrote.
Originally published by Latin Times