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2008 President · PA

Susquehanna Polling & Research Inc. · fieldwork ended 2008-10-17 (18 days before the election) · 700 respondents · Live Phone

The poll said

Democrat 48% · Republican 40%

D+8.0

The certified result

Democrat 54.49% · Republican 44.17%

D+10.3

The arithmetic

  1. Poll margin = 48 − 40 = 8.00
  2. Actual margin = 54.486 − 44.167 = 10.319
  3. Signed miss = 8.00 − (10.319) = -2.318
  4. Absolute miss = |-2.318| = 2.318

The poll overstated the Republican by 2.3 points and had the right leader.

Where these numbers come from

Poll and result: 538 raw_polls.csv. Poll ID 16820, race ID 742 (538 database).