As of Friday at 10 a.m. Eastern, our average of national polls says Harris has the support of 45.0 percent of voters, while Trump garners 43.5 percent.

That 1.5-percentage-point lead is within our average’s uncertainty interval, which you can think of as a sort of margin of error for our polling averages.

It’s a little weird that they say Harris is “tied” with trump, even though she’s ahead by 1.5%. That seems like a big deal. Margin of error is important, but it’s just factually true that Vice President Harris is up by an average of 1.5%.

I looked back at how 538 treated polls when trump was up by a similar amount:

https://abcnews.go.com/538/polls-after-presidential-debate/story?id=111610497

In 538’s national polling average, Trump now leads by 1.4 percentage points over Biden, while the two candidates were just about tied on June 27, the day of the debate.

So Harris up by 1.5% is actually “tied”, but trump up on Biden by 1.4% is “leads” (and explicitly different from “tied”!). No mention of margin of error in that paragraph.

🤔🤔🤔

  • thrawn@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Nate Silver has similar numbers. I don’t have a great deal of faith in polls or poll aggregators, but both of those put together is a good sign.

      • thrawn@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Yeah but he had significantly more pessimistic numbers for Biden from model launch to dropping out. Whether 538 was overly optimistic for the dems or Silver was overly pessimistic, it’s good news either way when both agree Harris is up

  • Nougat@fedia.io
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    3 months ago

    National polls are not relevant to who wins the election for the Presidency.

  • Media Bias Fact Checker@lemmy.worldB
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    3 months ago
    ABC News Media Bias Fact Check Credibility: [High] (Click to view Full Report)

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  • P00ptart@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    The big thing here is that polls skew right. They have been for years. This is why Democrats have been winning again and again recently, by large margins. Young people don’t participate in polls. We don’t answer calls from numbers we don’t know. I know I’m calling myself “young” as an elder millennial, but compared to people who answer every call, I am young. That’s why polls skew right, then the election goes left. My generation and younger won’t pick up the phone for numbers we don’t recognize. We grew up in the tech world and know better. Boomers and GenX will pick up the phone and proudly proclaim their position. Recently polls have suggested that the right wing is ahead, yet they keep losing. Because they’re losers, and I’m happy that my generation is blocking that bullshit. I hope the younger generations keep up with ending totalitarian rule and will continue the fight against psychopathy.

    • Vanon@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      There are so many factors. I think raw polling numbers and single polls are problematic , and definitely need to be deciphered, unbiased, combined and aggregated by reputable pros (like Nate Silver and others). Then they actually gain value and accuracy.

    • CitizenKong@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Generally yes, but no reason to get complacent. A large number of young people are also skewing right, particularly young men.

      • arefx@lemmy.ml
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        3 months ago

        Also, the amount of young men for idolize people like Andrew Tate and Jordan Peterson is concerning, but nothing will be done to address it. Social media is just as bad for their appearance and mental health issues as IG beauty standards are for young women, ie mewing, etc.

  • rayyy@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    One has momentum and a convention bump coming up. The other is OLD, tired and really WEIRD.

    • AbsentBird@lemm.ee
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      3 months ago

      Super old, with an atrocious VP. Worst presidential ticket in my lifetime by far.

      • P00ptart@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Same, which is sad because I was 18 when bush was president. But if take bush 1000X over trump.

        • AbsentBird@lemm.ee
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          3 months ago

          Yeah, I couldn’t stand Bush, but he was a way stronger candidate than trump.

    • Optional@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Dang, five downvotes? Someone loves them some polls!

      Nate Silver - is that you and four alts??

  • Omega@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Yeah, because all of the “mainstream” news channels actually skew right, since they’re constantly overcorrecting to appear non-biased.

  • Sterile_Technique@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    So Harris up by 1.5% is actually “tied”, but trump up on Biden by 1.4% is “leads” (and explicitly different from “tied”!). No mention of margin of error in that paragraph.

    I don’t mind that. It bothers me when a paper-thin lead is reported as just a “lead” cuz it kills people’s sense of urgency.

  • JimSamtanko@lemm.ee
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    3 months ago

    While it’s good that she’s tied it up- it’s fucking pathetic that this is even a decision to make. That orange piece of shit felon shouldn’t be allowed run.

  • Eatspancakes84@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Margin of error might have been smaller before than it is now. Makes a ton of sense because the race has changed so rapidly.

      • BreadstickNinja@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        All the people who founded it left. Nate Silver, who originally built the company, doesn’t trust the new leadership, their model, or their treatment of polls.

        They’re credible for simply reporting poll results but the election model seems to have some issues.

      • Twinklebreeze @lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        I wouldn’t say they are pure trash, but they have also lost all of the talent that made them great. Nate, Claire, The Whiz Kid Harry Enton. I stopped listening to the podcast when Claire left. I stopped reading the site when Nate left and took his model with him.

      • steve_floof@lemm.ee
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        3 months ago

        They get enhanced coverage every election year, get everything wrong, then brought in again 4 years later as experts.

        Reminds me of the show Lost, where Sayid would plan a military style operation for the group. They’d all get captured because he was wrong, then have him plan the next military operation with immediate amnesia of how poorly he does at such things

  • meep_launcher@lemm.ee
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    3 months ago

    They didn’t ask me and I’m sure as hell voting.

    Fuck these Chrystal balls we’re voting and we’re winning

    • AmidFuror@fedia.io
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      3 months ago

      Was the post edited in the last 5 minutes? Seems it addressed this and gave an example of how it was different for Trump v Biden.

    • Irremarkable@fedia.io
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      3 months ago

      Yeah calling this weird is simply a complete misunderstanding of basic statistics. If the lead is within the margin of error, it’s absolutely fair to call it tied.