Justin Smith and the rest of the focus group watched the Vice Presidential Debate together. After the debate the CNN focus group was asked “Have you now made up your mind after watching the VP debate?”. They were give the option to choose between Trump/Pence, Clinton/Kaine, or 3rd party.

According to Smith, more voted for 3rd party by show of hands than Trump or Clinton. But then CNN manipulated the focus group results by switching the question from including a “3rd party” option to “undecided”.

Justin Smith with the rest of the CNN focus group

I reached out to Justin and here’s a simple breakdown of his story.

1st post-debate poll

Ninety minutes after the debate, the group was asked if anything changed their minds during the debate and if they would vote for Trump, Clinton, or third party. The group voted by remote and then by raising their hands. According to Justin Smith’s count, 5 participants voted for Clinton, and 2 for Trump, and he estimates 12 voted third party. At that point, the anchor informed the focus group that they were going to do that segment again.

2nd take

The group was asked the same question, but without the option to vote third party. Instead the only option other than Trump or Clinton was undecided. Smith asked why they changed the question and was ignored. Smith says the anchor just said, “We’re going to do another one just like that.”

3rd take

Again they were asked if they knew who they’d vote for if they had to vote tonight, given the options being Trump, Clinton, or undecided. At this point Justin says the group realized, they were no longer being given the chance to choose 3rd party, and so raised their hands as undecided.

4th take — Broadcast LIVE

Then CNN re-shot the segment and replaced “third-party” with “undecided”. This is the version that was broadcast live. You can see Justin (in the middle of middle row) did not raise his hand in protest.