It is a rational behavior to question a prediction if an event that was deemed to have low probability actually happened, I don’t like the implication that it is stupid to do so.
In fact, after thorough investigation, most polling agencies did identify significant factors that let to bias, and almost all major pollsters have adapted their methods in later elections as a result: education weighting, compensating for nonresponse bias, diversified polling channels beyond phone calls (online surveys, text messages, in-app polling), likely-voter modeling…
I don’t think any professional pollster will tell you that the prediction you mentioned was reasonably accurate in retrospect, regardless of affiliation.
I don’t attribute malice or incompetence, it’s clear that the game changed suddenly and new confounding factors became significant. People that would previously vote together diverged significantly, lots of politically inactive people became involved, people were afraid to be honest, and people that were harder to reach were voting much differently to those that were more accessible to pollsters. That will really mess with any sampling strategy that proved reliable for many years before.
In fact, after thorough investigation, most polling agencies did identify significant factors that let to bias, and almost all major pollsters have adapted their methods in later elections as a result: education weighting, compensating for nonresponse bias, diversified polling channels beyond phone calls (online surveys, text messages, in-app polling), likely-voter modeling…
I don’t think any professional pollster will tell you that the prediction you mentioned was reasonably accurate in retrospect, regardless of affiliation.
I don’t attribute malice or incompetence, it’s clear that the game changed suddenly and new confounding factors became significant. People that would previously vote together diverged significantly, lots of politically inactive people became involved, people were afraid to be honest, and people that were harder to reach were voting much differently to those that were more accessible to pollsters. That will really mess with any sampling strategy that proved reliable for many years before.