Introducing 538's new 2024 presidential polling averages for Kamala Harris versus Donald Trump.
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:
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.
They're by different writers, and I know on their podcast I have heard people disagree in the past about things like whether a polling difference is meaningful, so maybe they're just each calling it like they see it.
Yeah, I didn't check that. It makes sense but they still have editors. I'm not saying there's some conspiracy to keep Kamala down, but watch for this to coincidentally happen again.
Being up by 1.5% is huge. Biden being down by 1.4% caused him to drop out.
It's in the right direction, but Democrats need to overperform nationally to be in good shape in the electoral college. Big movement from where Biden was, but it needs to keep going. A Democrat down 1.4% is almost a sure loss, but a Democrat up 1.5% isn't a sure win.
While itās good that sheās tied it up- itās fucking pathetic that this is even a decision to make. That orange piece of shit felon shouldnāt be allowed run.
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.
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.
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.
National polling averages are nice and all, but what's the situation in the critical swing states? Popular vote should be fairly meaningless unless either side is up but like 25 points.
Fairly promising, at least in relation to Biden v Trump numbers
AZ: mostly even
GA: mostly even
MI: mostly even, Harris with a lead depending on how much you trust Morning Consult's numbers
MN: Harris leads
NV: mostly even
WI: mostly even, slight lead for Harris
If I'm remembering right, most of those had Trump leading prior to Biden dropping out
Yeah I think youāre right about these states polling differently following Bidenās withdrawal. Pretty sure I remember trump being ahead in at least 4 of that set.
There's some value versus knowing nothing. But until October early voting actually begins, not worth obsessing over. To be fair, their forecast was still one of the better ones for that infamous election, dropping around 60-40 Clinton during election day (NYT was still 90-10). And I'm sure many things were learned from it, maybe even over-corrected, based on '20-22. I'll be following Nate's Silver Bulletin this year (he left 538 and took his algorithms).
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.
So Harris up by 1.5% is actually "tied", but trump up on Biden by 1.4% is "leads"
Not sure this is what they are doing, but the republican advantage in the electoral college could explain the terminology here. With polls a dead heat, democrats are losing every time.
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.
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, itās good news either way when both agree Harris is up
Claim is not that polls determine the Presidency. It's that a national poll is not relevant because Presidents are elected by state results via the EC.
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.
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. Theyād 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
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.
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