Reuters has taken some heat in recent months for “tweaking” their polling methodology seemingly every time the data reveals “inconvenient” results for Hillary (see our previous posts on the topic here and here). But the latest Reuters/Ipsos polling “tweak” is truly amazing. Having run out of options for slyly “tweaking” questions and categories to sway respondents in their preferred direction, Reuters has apparnetly resorted to blatant poll tampering by altering their polling samples to include a disproportionate number of democrats.
In their latest poll, released just two days ago, Reuters found Hillary to have a 6 point lead in a head-to-head contest with Trump. But, when you dig a little deeper you find that Reuters’ polling sample included 44% democrats and only 33% republicans. Which would be fine, of course, if it had any basis in reality. But, as The Pew Research Center points out very clearly (see table below), registered democrats represent about 33% of the electorate while republicans are 29%…a modest 4 point gap versus the 11 point advantage in the Reuters sample.
Of course, this is significant because, as any reasonable person would expect, democrats swing toward Hillary by an overwhelming margin of 84% and, vice-versa, 78% of republicans swing toward Trump.
Now, using Reuters’ data, Hillary supposedly has a 6-point lead over Trump. However, if we alter the sample data to reflect what Pew says is the real distribution of democrats versus republicans (i.e. 33% vs. 29%, respectively) and apply the same support levels by party affiliation it results in an 8.5% swing toward Trump who would have a 2.5% lead….very inconvenient.
Continue reading “How Reuters “Tweaked” Its Latest Poll (Again) To Show A Clinton Lead”
