An historically-reliable Iowa poll has been scrapped just before it was set to be released.
The poll is the Des Moines Register/CNN/Mediacom poll of likely Iowa Democratic caucus-goers.
According to a report in The New York Times, the problem arose after the campaign of Democrat Pete Buttigieg complained that his name was left off of the choice of candidates in at least one polling interview.
Today, a respondent raised an issue with the way the survey was administered, which could have compromised the results of the poll. It appears a candidate’s name was omitted in at least one interview in which the respondent was asked to name their preferred candidate. While this appears to be isolated to one surveyor, we cannot confirm that with certainty. Therefore, the partners made the difficult decision to not to move forward with releasing the Iowa Poll.
Carol Hunter, Iowa Register
The poll, which has been published for 76 years, previously correctly predicted the winner of Iowa’s Democrat caucuses since 1988.
The stunning announcement by the media sponsors and West Des Moines-based pollster Selzer & Co. means the results of the historically accurate survey won’t be released before Monday caucuses. The decision left the campaign and political media universe, which has descended on Des Moines, dumbfounded.
Politico
Read more in Politico:
READ BETWEEN THE LINES ON THIS . THIS IS SOMETHING THE DNC WOULD HAVE DONE TO BUY MORE TIME . BECAUSE TO MUCH HEAT ON JOE BIDEN RIGHT NOW