DES MOINES, Iowa — Since 1997 J. Ann Selzer has conducted election polls in Iowa, and her poll this election cycle, which garnered a lot of national attention, will be her last.
Selzer announced the news on Sunday, and later on Sunday night President-elect Donald Trump took to Truth Social and claimed possible election fraud by Selzer.
A totally Fake poll that caused great distrust and uncertainty at a very critical time. She knew exactly what she was doing. Thank you to the GREAT PEOPLE OF IOWA for giving me such a record breaking vote, despite possible ELECTION FRAUD by Ann Selzer and the now discredited “newspaper” for which she works. An investigation is fully called for!
President-elect Donald Trump (R) on Truth Social
Selzer’s final Iowa Poll showed Vice President Kamala Harris in the lead in Iowa by three points. Trump won the state by 13 points.
“The plan was to announce it (retirement) after this election, which is what ended up happening,” said J. Ann Selzer, pollster and president of Selzer & Co. “So it’s kind of a coincidence that it happens after a what I call a spectacular miss. I haven’t had one like that, but it’s a coincidence, not causality.”
Selzer said she’s been planning on retiring for over a year, speaking with a transition coach to help her iron out the details for the change. She said in 2016 she started thinking about what might be next for her. Selzer & Co. is not primarily built for election polling, but for helping private businesses with polling needs. Selzer said that she found a passion to help businesses get an idea about what will work or not work to the best of her abilities.
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“Election polling is highly intense. It’s very, it’s a pressure cooker. And then in the end, what did you accomplish, you know? So, I’m looking for making contributions in other kinds of ways,” said Selzer
She discussed with WHO 13 News how she has handled the negative backlash online, and responded to Trump’s assertion on social media.
“Throughout my polling career of more than 30 years, I’ve had final polls that showed Republican candidates leading and polls that showed Democratic candidates leading. That is a reflection of what respondents said. I used the same process since 2008, and my polls have generally been accurate. Not this one,” said Selzer. “In the spirit of transparency, the Des Moines Register has published a full compliment of poll documents, including information on how the data were weighted and what impact that had on the final horserace findings (very little). There are also crosstabs and other documents that the public can examine.”
She added that the idea that she would commit election fraud is a very serious matter, as it is a crime. Selzer said she has evidence showing payments to the phonebank and other vendors, which she said she would not make up.
Selzer has been a highly ranked pollster since she started, most notably predicting Barack Obama to carry the state in the Democratic Caucus in 2008 by a wide margin. FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver gave her an “A+” rating out of more than 300 polls in the country.
You can view portions of Selzer’s interview with WHO 13 News in the videos below.
Selzer discusses her thought process going into retirement from election polling:
Backlash after the last Iowa poll and how she has reacted:
Discussing her future career plans:
Despite a miss in her last poll, Selzer is still very proud of her accurate polling over the decades:
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