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2009 House · NY-20

Siena College · fieldwork ended 2009-03-25 (6 days before the election) · 917 respondents · Live Phone

The poll said

Democrat 47% · Republican 43%

D+4.0

The certified result

Democrat 43.53% · Republican 42.62%

D+0.9

The arithmetic

  1. Poll margin = 47 − 43 = 4.00
  2. Actual margin = 43.528 − 42.620 = 0.908
  3. Signed miss = 4.00 − (0.908) = 3.092
  4. Absolute miss = |3.092| = 3.092

The poll overstated the Democrat by 3.1 points and had the right leader.

Where these numbers come from

Poll and result: 538 raw_polls.csv. Poll ID 64252, race ID 1804 (538 database).