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2012 President · national

Beacon Research/Shaw & Co. Research · fieldwork ended 2012-10-29 (8 days before the election) · 1,128 respondents · Live Phone

The poll said

Democrat 46% · Republican 46%

even

The certified result

Democrat 50.91% · Republican 46.97%

D+3.9

The arithmetic

  1. Poll margin = 46 − 46 = 0.00
  2. Actual margin = 50.909 − 46.974 = 3.935
  3. Signed miss = 0.00 − (3.935) = -3.935
  4. Absolute miss = |-3.935| = 3.935

The poll overstated the Republican by 3.9 points and showed a tie.

Where these numbers come from

Poll and result: 538 raw_polls.csv. Poll ID 43261, race ID 37 (538 database).