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2008 President · OH

Columbus Dispatch · fieldwork ended 2008-10-26 (9 days before the election) · 2,164 respondents · Mail

The poll said

Democrat 52% · Republican 46%

D+6.0

The certified result

Democrat 51.50% · Republican 46.91%

D+4.6

The arithmetic

  1. Poll margin = 52 − 46 = 6.00
  2. Actual margin = 51.504 − 46.911 = 4.593
  3. Signed miss = 6.00 − (4.593) = 1.406
  4. Absolute miss = |1.406| = 1.406

The poll overstated the Democrat by 1.4 points and had the right leader.

Where these numbers come from

Poll and result: 538 raw_polls.csv. Poll ID 16502, race ID 739 (538 database).