Lamar Smith: “Both the Washington Examiner and Washington Times recently have reported on a practice that is resulting in overly low…”

“Both the Washington Examiner and Washington Times recently have reported on a practice that is resulting in overly low approval ratings for President Trump. Pollsters are not necessarily rigging their questions to get a desired result; instead, they are creating a biased result by how they select people to poll. Frequently, the pollsters contact more Democrats than Republicans. Unsurprisingly, the results tilt anti-Trump. The Examiner pointed out that this ``robs Trump of about 8 points in his approval ratings, from 46 percent to 38 percent.'' The Times noted that in polls including Presidential approval questions, the Economist relied on a sample that used 58 percent more Democrats than Republicans, which ``gave Democrats a 14-point edge, while Reuters and Gallup gave Democrats an 11-point and 7-point edge in their samples.'' Mr. Speaker, as the 2016 election taught us, we shouldn't rely on biased polls if we want accuracy. ____________________”