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2000 President · national

Princeton Survey Research Associates International · fieldwork ended 2000-10-19 (19 days before the election) · 800 respondents · Live Phone

The poll said

Democrat 41% · Republican 48%

R+7.0

The certified result

Democrat 48.15% · Republican 47.66%

D+0.5

The arithmetic

  1. Poll margin = 41 − 48 = -7.00
  2. Actual margin = 48.149 − 47.657 = 0.492
  3. Signed miss = -7.00 − (0.492) = -7.492
  4. Absolute miss = |-7.492| = 7.492

The poll overstated the Republican by 7.5 points and had the wrong leader.

Where these numbers come from

Poll and result: 538 raw_polls.csv. Poll ID 28095, race ID 40 (538 database).