Tuesday, Fox News released the results of a poll it commissioned showing former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore, the Republican nominee for a special election to fill the U.S. Senate seat formerly held by Jeff Sessions, tied at 42 percent with Democratic nominee former Clinton U.S. Attorney Doug Jones.
The poll was conducted October 14-16 in a joint effort by Democratic polling firm Anderson Robbins Research and Republican polling firm Shaw & Company Research by landline and cell phone with the interviews of a random sample of 801 Alabama registered voters.
The survey sample of “registered voters” instead of likely voters was a red flag for Alabama Republican chairman Terry Lathan, who called the poll “highly inaccurate” and “an extreme outlier.”
“The recent Fox News poll on the U.S. Senate race is highly inaccurate as it only surveyed registered voters, not likely voters, and included too many cell phone responses-neither are representative of who will turn out on December 12,” Lathan said to Breitbart News. “This poll is an extreme outlier and should be treated as such. All current polling shows a consistent pattern of Roy Moore winning between 6-8 points.”
Earlier polling showed the race not being as close. An Opinion Savvy poll conducted the two days after the Moore-Luther Strange Republican runoff on September 26 showed the contest having a margin of 6 points. Another poll conducted by JMC Analytics days later showed the margin at 8 points.
Huntsville, AL talk show host Dale Jackson observed that some of Jones’ support comes from an anti-Moore sentiment while very little of Moore’s support is derived from an anti-Jones sentiment.
The election will be held December 12, the final round of a months-long process.
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor