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2014 Governor · IA

Selzer & Co. · fieldwork ended 2014-10-30 (5 days before the election) · 701 respondents · Live Phone

The poll said

Democrat 35% · Republican 59%

R+24.0

The certified result

Democrat 37.27% · Republican 58.99%

R+21.7

The arithmetic

  1. Poll margin = 35 − 59 = -24.00
  2. Actual margin = 37.269 − 58.990 = -21.721
  3. Signed miss = -24.00 − (-21.721) = -2.279
  4. Absolute miss = |-2.279| = 2.279

The poll overstated the Republican by 2.3 points and had the right leader.

Where these numbers come from

Poll and result: 538 raw_polls.csv. Poll ID 34392, race ID 1226 (538 database).