As returns from quick-counting states like Florida and Texas flowed in Tuesday night, pollsters quickly became targets in America’s easily triggered political culture. With Democratic challenger Joe Biden running well behind poll-created expectations in those states, accusations of “collapse” and “disaster” peppered the nation’s pollsters. President Trump added to the fusillade Thursday by accusing them of deliberately releasing false results to discourage his supporters from voting.
But as states have counted more results, the picture has shifted: Polls did underestimate Trump’s vote, but by a relatively small amount — less, for example, than they underestimated President Obama’s strength in 2012, when he ran for reelection. CONT.
David Lauter, Los Angeles Times
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