Part of their problem was the demonization of Trump by the media. When media bias turns a policy or person into the instantiation of evil as they did with Trump, those who favor that policy or candidate will not want to side with that “evil” when answering poll questions. So they tell pollsters what they think people want to hear.
One older lady told me she planned to vote for Trump but asked me not to tell anyone. I read about a rabid Clinton supporter who wrote that his mother had promised him she wouldn’t vote in this election because she didn’t like either candidate. But when he wasn’t looking she slipped out and voted for Trump. The media shot themselves in the foot on this one.
Back in July I wrote a post on economic models that were Trumpeting a win for the Republican candidate or modestly admitting the outcome was too close to call. The accuracy of those models showed that people consider the economy their most important issue.
