Monday on his radio show broadcasted on Birmingham’s Talk 99.5, host Leland Whaley, a former adviser for former Alabama Gov. Bob Riley (R), argued that U.S. Senate hopeful Roy Moore generally underperforms in polls by five points.
Whaley acknowledged that although the race was tightening between Moore and his opponent Democrat Doug Jones, Moore’s support from voters often isn’t reflected by polling.
“Based on what I’m picking up out of Washington – the controversy involving this candidacy and the sinking poll numbers for Roy Moore – and now again, I don’t think he at this point is going to lose and I think any poll you see that shows him down – you better add five points to his total because some of his supporters are not going to talk to pollsters and there’s some moderate people in this state that will still privately vote for him, even though they wouldn’t publicly admit it,” Whaley said.
“I believe that adds a factor, and again this out of practical knowledge out of having done this – probably adds 5 percent to his vote total,” he added.
Whaley also cautioned listeners about the accuracy of polling done between Wednesday and Monday over the Thanksgiving holiday.
“Anything you see, and I’ll just go ahead and guide y’all though this, no matter which side of this you’re on – any poll that you see coming out after Thanksgiving, if it’s done anytime between Wednesday afternoon and let’s say next Monday, it’s worthless. People are out of their patterns. They’re traveling because of the holiday. We got the Iron Bowl coming up. You cannot get distracted with that. You cannot get a regular sample of voters unless you are polling during the regular work week when people are going about their normal routines.”
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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