Princeton Election Consortium

Here is a pre-election article by Kerry consultant Mark Mellman that predicted Bush’s popular vote share to within 0.1%. Going by the article, the factors that went into the calculation included job approval, the economy, war, and right track/wrong track sentiment. Putting aside the talk about values (based on a single poorly-worded exit poll question), [...]

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I continue to be deluged by email on the subject of the anomalies in Florida voting in small counties. As I said below, these data sort fairly well by the rural/urban divide. In a graph by Jeff Chambers that there may be some small remaining anomaly. However, this could be ballot spoilage. Here’s an analysis [...]

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Commentary on the electoral divide by the American Prospect’s Harold Meyerson.

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A number of you have mailed in a plausible explanation for the seemingly anomalous results in optical-scan voting counties in Florida. Essentially, the apparent disproportionate voting for Bush occurred in less populated counties. These counties, being non-urban and having fewer resources, are still using optical-scan ballots. Therefore three variables are correlated here: smaller populations, voting [...]

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Jim G sends in his first look at county-level analysis of Florida and suggests that nothing is amiss. However, a full listing of results by voting method raises questions not about electronic voting, but about optical scan voting. I am open to any explanation for these numbers – resolution soon, I hope.

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The meta-analysis has helped me stay rational in this election cycle, but some thought needs to go into future action. The election was close, but in a binary event 0.51 rounds up to 1. Anyway, here are some cogent post-election thoughts from Josh Marshall.

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A few items of business. First, note that without my optimistic assumptions, I nailed the Electoral College tally. This, even in the face of single-state probabilities that give a different map and EV total. Poll margins are also quite close: see these validations of the method (still under modification but viewable). Now there’s a testament [...]

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Dear readers, I am getting lots of mail on my brilliant prediction. Thanks to all of you on both sides of the aisle. For many opponents of Bush, this election has been a wrenching event, not unlike a death in the family. This election was a highly significant political event that we will be feeling [...]

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To summarize points so far this morning: So far, the electoral outcome matches pre-election polling data very closely, with the possible exception of Florida. Therefore the electoral count looks a lot like the decided-voters median listed above. However, my final predictions were wrong. It appears that my add-on assumption about undecideds (the rule that they [...]

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In Ohio, many provisional ballots are left to be counted. In the meantime, here is some general analysis. Overall, pre-election polls, exit polls and actual voting are mostly correlated. An exception occurs in Florida, suggesting that something unusual might have happened there, either in voting or in exit and opinion polling. The effect is probably [...]

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