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2016 Senate · PA

Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion · fieldwork ended 2016-11-01 (7 days before the election) · 405 respondents · Live Phone

The poll said

Democrat 42% · Republican 43%

R+1.0

The certified result

Democrat 47.34% · Republican 48.77%

R+1.4

The arithmetic

  1. Poll margin = 42 − 43 = -1.00
  2. Actual margin = 47.341 − 48.774 = -1.433
  3. Signed miss = -1.00 − (-1.433) = 0.432
  4. Absolute miss = |0.432| = 0.432

The poll overstated the Democrat by 0.4 points and had the right leader.

Where these numbers come from

Poll and result: 538 raw_polls.csv. Poll ID 48469, race ID 86 (538 database).