To the editor: Robin Abcarian’s column on preelection polls was one other glorious piece from her.
What individuals overlook is that in 2016, many of the main polls had been primarily right. These polls didn’t predict Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton profitable that election; they solely mirrored the truth that she was forward by about 3.5 factors simply previous to election day. Moreover, these polls had been taken earlier than then-FBI Director James Comey’s October shock was absolutely baked in.
It also needs to be remembered that Clinton received the favored vote by 2.1 share factors, however she misplaced the electoral faculty vote to Donald Trump.
What’s additionally attention-grabbing about 2016 was the traditional knowledge that one of many solely right main polls was the USC/L.A. Occasions ballot, which had Clinton dropping by a bit greater than three factors. In different phrases, in line with the traditional knowledge, a ballot that was off by greater than 5 share factors was right, whereas the opposite polls that on common missed by about 1.5 factors had been improper.
Ballot derangement syndrome certainly.
Fred Gober, Playa Vista
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To the editor: The 2016 polls had been gut-wrenchingly improper. Nonetheless, I used to be not stunned when Clinton misplaced.
I voted for her and needed her to win, however when she referred to numerous Trump’s supporters as “deplorables,” I cringed on the wholesale lack of respect that implied. It could have been meant to be intelligent, however it led to one thing worse than simply political disagreements; these phrases fractured “we the individuals” into “us versus them.”
After which got here the conspiracy theories and makes an attempt to dismantle our democracy with threats and lies.
There’s a saying that it’s simple to idiot individuals, however it’s darn close to inconceivable to persuade them that they’ve been fooled. But I can see that many People on either side of the fence are keen to dispense with our variations and work towards defending our democracy and freedoms, as a result of we love our nation and our households.
Ina Scott, Lancaster
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To the editor: Abcarian missed an vital level.
The premise of her piece was that political polls have turn out to be unreliable in the newest election cycles. She cited the truth that polls had Clinton manner forward of Trump in 2016, simply earlier than she misplaced the election. Polls in 2020 had President Biden a lot farther forward of Trump than the precise vote tally.
Her clarification for these discrepancies was the failure of pollsters to parse out schooling ranges amongst white voters. I feel it’s a lot easier.
I feel there’s a giant block of allegedly “undecided” voters who’re just too embarrassed to confess to a pollster that they intend to vote for an orange-faced, felonious candidate.
Dean Simpson, Visalia, Calif.
