Republicans blasted for 'strategically' using suspect polls to boost Trump

According to a report from the New York Times, a combination of polling from sketchy organizations along with reports on overseas betting markets favoring the GOP ticket are being used to keep up the spirits of Donald Trump's supporters with the election just days away.

With election watchers frantically attempting to get a handle on what will transpire next Tuesday, the Times' Ken Bensinger and Kaleigh Rogers report that Trump voters may be being lulled into a false sense of security by social media reports that tout pollsters that don't divulge their methodology.

As the report notes, "Some argue that the real purpose of partisan polls, along with other expectation-setting metrics such as political betting markets, is directed at a different goal entirely: building a narrative of unstoppable momentum for Mr. Trump."

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The report notes that voters are already skeptical of pollsters, pointing to the much-hyped "Red Wave" that never materialized for Republicans.

It wrote that one conservative influencer spread around a highly suspect poll to his million-plus social media followers that promised a "74.3 percent of the national vote" win for Trump, the Times report added.

"There have been additional polls conducted by firms with a history of favoring Republicans or with a public record of pro-Republican rhetoric that have not been designated as partisan by any of the aggregators."

Case in point, the Times report pointed out the much-cited RealClearPolitics which has long been a go-to for the cable TV shows which the report notes is problematic.

"Unlike its competitors, RealClearPolitics does not filter out low-quality polls, incorporating results from pollsters with a poor track record that other aggregators reject. It also does not weight its averages. One of its pages displays a map of the electoral college with a winner projected for each state, even those the site currently deems to be tossups.

That “no tossups” map currently shows Mr. Trump winning every single swing state," the report stead before adding, "RealClearPolitics did not immediately respond to a request for comment."

That report continued, "Influential accounts have been sharing screenshots of RealClearPolitics’ scarlet-dominated Electoral College map, often paired with images of the Polymarket betting average, which currently shows Mr. Trump with a 65 percent chance of winning."

That led Joshua Dyck, who directs the Center for Public Opinion at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, to caution, "Republicans are clearly strategically putting polling into the information environment to try to create perceptions that Trump is stronger. Their incentive is not necessarily to get the answer right.”

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