2004 Senate · FL
SurveyUSA · fieldwork ended 2004-10-16 (17 days before the election) · 596 respondents · IVR
The poll said
Democrat 47% · Republican 49%
R+2.0
The certified result
Democrat 48.32% · Republican 49.43%
R+1.1
The arithmetic
- Poll margin = 47 − 49 = -2.00
- Actual margin = 48.321 − 49.434 = -1.113
- Signed miss = -2.00 − (-1.113) = -0.887
- Absolute miss = |-0.887| = 0.887
The poll overstated the Republican by 0.9 points and had the right leader.
Where these numbers come from
Poll and result: 538 raw_polls.csv. Poll ID 4672, race ID 1621 (538 database).