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2008 President · national

CBS News/The New York Times · fieldwork ended 2008-10-27 (8 days before the election) · 1,005 respondents · Live Phone

The poll said

Democrat 52% · Republican 39%

D+13.0

The certified result

Democrat 52.76% · Republican 45.36%

D+7.4

The arithmetic

  1. Poll margin = 52 − 39 = 13.00
  2. Actual margin = 52.760 − 45.360 = 7.400
  3. Signed miss = 13.00 − (7.400) = 5.600
  4. Absolute miss = |5.600| = 5.600

The poll overstated the Democrat by 5.6 points and had the right leader.

Where these numbers come from

Poll and result: 538 raw_polls.csv. Poll ID 18176, race ID 38 (538 database).