Republicans (U.S. Senate):
| State | Margin | Voter Power |
|---|---|---|
| MT | Bullock +1.0 | 100.0 |
| ME | Gideon +2.5 | 63.4 |
| AK | Sullivan +3.0 | 59.8 |
| IA | Greenfield +2.0 | 24.6 |
| MS | Hyde-Smith +3.0 | 17.5 |
| GA | Ossoff +1.2 | 13.7 |
Today at 5:00pm Eastern, I’ll help host former UN Ambassador Samantha Power. It’s part of the University Public Lecture series. It will be a conversation between Amb. Power and Deb Amos, my colleague in Journalism and NPR News correspondent.
This lecture is free and open to the public, but reservations are required.
Or you can watch this event via Live Stream by clicking here.
For more information about this event, visit the Public Lectures website.
→ 1 CommentTags: Princeton
In today’s Washington Post, my take on the sources of polling errors in Senate races – and the consequences for resource allocation when we don’t take those errors into account.
I have more to say to PEC readers on this, since it was a major feature of what we did. If we knew then what we know now, North Carolina and Georgia Senate races would have gotten more emphasis. I will dissect that soon.
→ 14 CommentsTags: 2020 Election · Senate
The polling errors for Senate candidates were quite large this year. In 13 races with final-ish results, the margin of the outcome was a median of 7.9 points more Republican than the last week of polling. That’s an amazingly large difference. In the past, the median error was no more than 3 points or so.
A big reason seems to be voters who were “undecided” about their Senate choice came home to their party. The other day I showed a graph that showed this effect (click to enlarge):
However, this didn’t show up for Democrats. [Read more →]
→ 10 CommentsTags: 2020 Election · Senate
The Presidential race is resolved:
…however, y’all are not done yet in the South!
The importance of the election for redistricting is still unfolding. There’s one more item: the Chief Justice of the North Carolina state Supreme Court. As of today, that race is within a margin of 3,500 votes – 0.06% of the over 5.3 million votes counted so far. There are an estimated 60,000-100,000 ballots still to be counted: mail-in ballots and provisional ballots to be verified, many of which must be “cured” between now and November 12th. Curing is a repair process that is done by phone or door-to-door contact. To help, volunteer here. (I welcome more suggestions for links.)
This is important because redistricting in North Carolina is now under single-party control. The state Supreme Court ordered a redrawing last year. If the General Assembly tries another gerrymander, they will face a court with at least 4 Democrats and 2 Republicans. The incoming Chief Justice will provide the 7th vote. Paul Newby (R) or Cheri Beasley (D) will have a lot of say!
And of course there are the Georgia Senate races, both of which are headed for a January 5 runoff. Those potentially determine control of the U.S. Senate. New voters can participate if they register by December 7th. Register online or by mail!
→ 28 CommentsTags: 2020 Election · Redistricting · Senate
While we wait for the likely conclusion of a Biden win with 306 electoral votes and a 5-6% popular-vote margin…
The graph above shows only states which have been called by media organizations, and where the count is >95% complete (results from NYT). For example, California, Arizona, Nevada, Pennsylvania are left out. Things may change.
In only two states, North Carolina and Florida, did the polls point in the wrong direction, where “wrong” means the sign of the polling margin and the outcome are opposite, and are indicated in red (North Carolina’s not entirely done yet). From a public consumption standpoint, though, that was consequential: before there election, expectations were raised of a possible Election-Night resolution…which was then followed by four days of suspense (I’m updating this on Saturday 11/7, after the networks finally called Pennsylvania).
But if we get into the details, there is a notable error in state polls. It has two components: (1) In states where polls favored Biden, the actual vote margin favored Trump by a median of an additional 2.6 points. (2) In states where polls favored Trump, Trump did better by a lot – 6.4 points median, and increasing steeply with his vote share.
Before you get all excited about that larger number…I should point out that it’s a known phenomenon in landslide states. [Read more →]
It seems like a full vote count (for example, if mail ballots were not delayed; hi, Louis DeJoy!) would lead to WI/MI/PA for Biden, GA a toss-up, and 291 to 307 electoral votes for Biden in the end (or one less, if Trump wins Maine’s 2nd Congressional District).
Three things are on my mind today: (a) voting rules matter a lot for the Presidency – and for the Senate, in Georgia and Maine; (b) polarization took over in Senate races, and (c) electoral reform took a major hit last night.
Also, there is no avoiding the question of the large polling error. [Read more →]
→ 55 CommentsTags: 2020 Election · President · Redistricting · Senate
New thread.
11:32 pm: Fox has called Arizona for Biden.
So far the reported returns, compared with pre-election polls, appear to be 6% toward Trump (Florida), 3.5% toward Trump (North Carolina), and 0% (New Hampshire). Pretty big errors, though not a pattern that tells us about WI/MI/PA.
11:51 pm: It’s like I said back in September, for the Presidential race we may be stuck waiting for Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. And here we are. Wisconsin will report tomorrow, Michigan Friday maybe tomorrow as well, and Pennsylvania…not sure yet. [Read more →]
Under current conditions, watching partial counts come in is like trying to guess someone’s weight as they put different body parts on the scale – but you are not told which part is being measured.
Give it time, everyone. This is not a normal election night.
— Sam Wang (@SamWangPhD) November 4, 2020
Live thread starting at 8:00pm. Comments are on! [Read more →]
A Twitter thread from the Electoral Innovation Lab team, plus a few people we’ve come to rely on. We’re watching state legislative races and democracy-reform ballot initiatives. Also some trackers: [Read more →]
Comments Off on Our Electoral Innovation Lab’s Twitter threadTags: 2020 Election
Today’s the last day of voting. In normal years we call it Election Day. This year, it’s the day when the vote-counting begins.
Thanks to all the early voting, polling stations are generally not busy. If you haven’t yet, go vote! Text MYVOTE to 977-79 to find your polling place.
Here are some resources for tonight:
For now, let’s use this as the main PEC comment thread.
Specific details on races and final snapshots after the jump. [Read more →]
→ 2 CommentsTags: 2020 Election · House · Princeton · Redistricting · Senate
| State | Margin | Voter Power |
|---|---|---|
| AZ | Biden +3.0 | 100.0 |
| NE-2 | Biden +4.5 | 92.7 |
| NV | Biden +6.0 | 83.0 |
| ME-2 | Biden +3.0 | 78.3 |
| NC | Biden +2.0 | 64.3 |
| PA | Biden +5.0 | 60.0 |
| FL | Biden +3.0 | 53.0 |
| GA | Biden +1.5 | 52.3 |
| NJ | Biden +19.4 | 2e-06 |
Republicans (redistricting):
