Internal polling reveals why Romney believed he would win

Internal polling showing leads over Barack Obama in New Hampshire and Colorado helped instill confidence in the Mitt Romney campaign on Election Day, according to final polling data revealed by Noam Scheiber of the New Republic.

It had previously been revealed that the campaign believed its candidate would carry North Carolina, Florida and Virginia. But data from polling conducted the weekend before Election Day reveals that the campaign also expected clear wins in New Hampshire and Colorado, both of which Romney lost.

Polling for Iowa showed a tied race, but Romney lost by nearly 6 percentage points.

The campaign has stated it misjudged turnout and its demographic makeup, which the campaign's chief pollster Neil Newhouse suggested was responsible for these flawed poll results. "The Colorado Latino vote was extraordinarily challenging," Newhouse told Scheiber. "As it was in Florida."

But Scheiber notes New Hampshire and Iowa "are both predominantly white states, and Obama won both whites and older voters in each of them." Also, Latinos were only 14 percent of the electorate in Colorado.

Scheiber also reports that the campaign may have incorrectly judged momentum for Romney.