AS THE ELECTION approaches its climax, dozens of opinion polls of American voters are churned out each day. None is so eagerly awaited as the final Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll of Iowa, produced by Selzer & Co, a polling firm. On “Election Twitter”—the colloquial name for a community of political-data junkies on X—this particular poll has taken on a legendary status. On the evening of November 2nd, it showed Kamala Harris leading Donald Trump in Iowa, sending Election Twitter into a frenzy. Why?
