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2010 Senate · NY

SurveyUSA · fieldwork ended 2010-10-12 (21 days before the election) · 633 respondents · IVR/Live Phone

The poll said

Democrat 54% · Republican 36%

D+18.0

The certified result

Democrat 59.65% · Republican 28.13%

D+31.5

The arithmetic

  1. Poll margin = 54 − 36 = 18.00
  2. Actual margin = 59.645 − 28.130 = 31.515
  3. Signed miss = 18.00 − (31.515) = -13.515
  4. Absolute miss = |-13.515| = 13.515

The poll overstated the Republican by 13.5 points and had the right leader.

Where these numbers come from

Poll and result: 538 raw_polls.csv. Poll ID 53158, race ID 1531 (538 database).