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An Iowa pollster who incorrectly predicted that Kamala Harris would beat Donald Trump for Iowa’s electoral votes hit back at the president-elect after he accused her of “election fraud.”
After completing polling in the state for decades, J. Ann Selzer announced her retirement on Sunday in a column published by the Des Moines Register. However, after Trump took to Truth Social to slam her previous poll, she clapped back, telling KTIV, “I’ve done the polls that he liked and praised me.”
“There’s just a thin veneer of his being concerned about the quality of my polling that has nothing to substantiate. So, it’s annoying, but it’s more than annoying. It is really a dig at my reputation. And for people who know me, they’re not buying a bit of it,” Selzer continued.
On Sunday, Trump posted to Truth Social, “A totally Fake poll that caused great distrust and uncertainty at a very critical time. She knew exactly what she was doing. Thank you to the GREAT PEOPLE OF IOWA for giving me such a record breaking vote, despite possible ELECTION FRAUD by Ann Selzer and the now discredited “newspaper” for which she works. An investigation is fully called for!”
The pollster told the station that police have told her to be on alert since the backlash to her poll became widespread, although officers said they had no evidence of immediate threats.
Spokesperson Steven Cheung told USA Today when asked if the president-elect was referencing a possible criminal investigation, “President Trump was very clear in his Truth Social post.”
“Over 30 years of polling led to an A+ rating… Maybe that history of accuracy made the outlier position too comfortable,” Selzer wrote in the Register on Sunday. “Polling is a science of estimation, and science has a way of periodically humbling the scientist. So, I’m humbled, yet always willing to learn from unexpected findings.”
Selzer said she had planned to retire this year even before the results of the election, but still plans to continue to work for private clients.
Originally published by Latin Times.
