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2006 Governor · MA

SurveyUSA · fieldwork ended 2006-10-31 (7 days before the election) · 664 respondents · IVR

The poll said

Democrat 55% · Republican 34%

D+21.0

The certified result

Democrat 55.63% · Republican 35.33%

D+20.3

The arithmetic

  1. Poll margin = 55 − 34 = 21.00
  2. Actual margin = 55.635 − 35.334 = 20.301
  3. Signed miss = 21.00 − (20.301) = 0.699
  4. Absolute miss = |0.699| = 0.699

The poll overstated the Democrat by 0.7 points and had the right leader.

Where these numbers come from

Poll and result: 538 raw_polls.csv. Poll ID 55411, race ID 1341 (538 database).