DES MOINES, Iowa — Political junkies waiting for the final installment of the famed Iowa Poll were left disappointed after its release was canceled.
The last Des Moines Register/CNN/Mediacom poll of likely Democratic caucusgoers before Monday’s opening contest in Iowa was pulled late Saturday after an Iowa City man complained he wasn’t given former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg as an option to a question about his preferred candidate, according to reports.
The poll’s results were due to be published simultaneously by Iowa’s premier newspaper and during a live broadcast by CNN before both outlets canned their plans.
“Nothing is more important to the Register and its polling partners than the integrity of the Iowa Poll,” Des Moines Register‘s executive editor Carol Hunter wrote in a statement. “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.”
Hunter added, “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.”
Hunter’s sentiment was echoed by CNN in the cable news network’s own statement.
The Iowa Poll is considered to be the gold-standard at taking the temperature of Iowans every presidential election cycle, given the unpredictability of the state’s caucus format.
Over the course of the 2020 Democratic presidential race, the poll has revealed four different front-runners, including Biden last June, Warren last September, Buttigieg last November, and then Sanders just this month.
Before the drama, Sanders led Biden by an average of 3.6 percentage points, with 23.8% of the vote to Biden’s 20.2%, according to RealClearPolitics data.
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