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2008 Senate · MN

Princeton Survey Research Associates International · fieldwork ended 2008-10-16 (19 days before the election) · 1,049 respondents · Live Phone

The poll said

Democrat 39% · Republican 36%

D+3.0

The certified result

Democrat 41.99% · Republican 41.98%

even

The arithmetic

  1. Poll margin = 39 − 36 = 3.00
  2. Actual margin = 41.994 − 41.983 = 0.011
  3. Signed miss = 3.00 − (0.011) = 2.989
  4. Absolute miss = |2.989| = 2.989

The poll overstated the Democrat by 3.0 points and had the right leader.

Where these numbers come from

Poll and result: 538 raw_polls.csv. Poll ID 16825, race ID 1561 (538 database).