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2010 Governor · IL

Scott Rasmussen (Rasmussen Reports) · fieldwork ended 2010-10-30 (3 days before the election) · 1,000 respondents · IVR

The poll said

Democrat 38% · Republican 44%

R+6.0

The certified result

Democrat 46.79% · Republican 45.94%

D+0.9

The arithmetic

  1. Poll margin = 38 − 44 = -6.00
  2. Actual margin = 46.789 − 45.935 = 0.854
  3. Signed miss = -6.00 − (0.854) = -6.853
  4. Absolute miss = |-6.853| = 6.853

The poll overstated the Republican by 6.9 points and had the wrong leader.

Where these numbers come from

Poll and result: 538 raw_polls.csv. Poll ID 32806, race ID 1285 (538 database).