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2004 Senate · OH

Columbus Dispatch · fieldwork ended 2004-10-24 (9 days before the election) · 2,880 respondents · Mail

The poll said

Democrat 38% · Republican 62%

R+24.0

The certified result

Democrat 36.15% · Republican 63.85%

R+27.7

The arithmetic

  1. Poll margin = 38 − 62 = -24.00
  2. Actual margin = 36.145 − 63.849 = -27.704
  3. Signed miss = -24.00 − (-27.704) = 3.704
  4. Absolute miss = |3.704| = 3.704

The poll overstated the Democrat by 3.7 points and had the right leader.

Where these numbers come from

Poll and result: 538 raw_polls.csv. Poll ID 4579, race ID 1638 (538 database).