(WTAQ) — While pre-election polls showed a close presidential race, most slightly suggested a Kamala Harris victory over Donald Trump.
The last Marquette Law School poll before the election had Harris winning 50-49% over Trump, but that was within the 4.4% margin of error. Trump won the presidential race with 295 electoral college votes. Harris only had 226.
“When you have a race that is a point or less margin, the polls are just not capable of distinguishing who will win at that tiny a margin,” said poll director Charles Franklin.
In the Marquette Law School polls, Harris did better on personal characteristics…
“But on issues, Trump consistently had the advantage on the economy, Harris had an advantage on abortion, but Trump also had an advantage on immigration,” said Franklin.
In the last Marquette Law School poll before the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton was projected to win 46-40% over Trump. Jerald Podair, a history professor at Lawrence University, says it’s not uncommon for people to lie in the polls.
“I think a good number of people polled, because it’s Donald Trump, they’re afraid to speak their minds to even a pollster and they give inaccurate information.”
Franklin says they used to only poll people over the phone, but now they’ve expanded how they reach voters.
“We try to reach people by text and by email, and that has improved our response rates, and our error is considerably smaller than 2016 or 2020,” said Franklin.
The last Marquette Law School poll also predicted a right race for U.S. Senate. It had Tammy Baldwin leading 51-49% over Eric Hovde. On election day Baldwin took the win at 49.4% over Hovde’s 48.5%
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