Not true:
"Three weeks before the election, for example, TIME'S polling firm, Yankelovich, Skelly and White, produced a survey of 1,632 registered voters showing the race almost dead even, as did a private survey by Caddell. Two weeks later, a survey by CBS News and the New York Times showed about the same situation.
Some pollsters at that time, however, were getting results that showed a slight Reagan lead. ABC News-Harris surveys, for example, consistently gave Reagan a lead of a few points until the climactic last week of October. "
"Nation: Where the Polls Went Wrong", Time Magazine, 12/1/1980
Reagan was actually ahead of Carter after the GOP convention. From that point until the 2nd debate, the polling had them within a few points of each other, with the lead changing hands several times. But Carter was not ahead of Reagan by a 30-point margin after the early primaries.
Registered voters will produce vastly different polling results than likely voters. I’m unable to verify the information in the time magazine article because I get a message that says “not available on this server”. I don’t have a lot of trust in TIME so it would be helpful to see what they used as proof.
Cindie