Election Update: Comey Or Not, Trump Continues To Narrow Gap With Clinton

Source: FiveThirtyEight
Published: Oct 31, 2016
Author: Nate Silver
Post Date: 2016-10-31 19:55:57 by ConservingFreedom
Views: 2034

We got another set of mixed results on Monday on whether the election has tightened further as a result of FBI Director James Comey’s letter to Congress about Hillary Clinton’s email server. Overall, however, this is a fairly negative set of data for Clinton . First, we’ll start with polls that were conducted entirely since the news broke on Friday:

  • A Morning Consult national poll for Politico, conducted Saturday and Sunday, has Clinton leading Donald Trump by 3 percentage points. That’s down from a 6-point lead in a poll Morning Consult conducted on Oct. 19-20 after the third presidential debate. But Morning Consult also conducted a poll last Thursday and Friday — included with this morning’s release — that had shown the race tightening, with Clinton holding a 3-point lead. So this poll shows Trump closing the gap with Clinton, but not necessarily because of Comey.
  • The Times Picayune-Lucid national tracking poll , conducted Friday through Sunday, has Clinton up by just 1 percentage point — as close as Trump has ever been to Clinton in that poll — although there isn’t a huge swing from the pre-Comey version of the poll, which had Clinton ahead by 3 points.
  • A set of eight automated polls of swing states conducted on Sunday by Remington Research Group on behalf of the Republican consulting firm Axiom Strategies showed Trump gaining 1 percentage point, on average, as compared with polls they conducted a week earlier.

There are also several polls that straddle the period before and after Comey’s announcement:

While this is not a terrible set of numbers for Clinton — and probably not the “game changer” that the Comey news was billed as on Friday — I’ve also seen analyses that go too far in the other direction and conclude that the news hasn’t really had any impact. Clinton’s popular vote lead is down to 4.7 percentage points in our forecast, as compared with 5.7 percentage points on Friday and 7.1 percentage points two weeks ago. And Trump’s chances of winning are 24 percent in the polls-only model, up from 19 percent on Friday and 12 percent two weeks ago. Trump’s chances are 26 percent in the polls-plus model, which is converging with polls-only.

It’s not easy to tell how much of that shift reflects a reaction to Comey, as compared with a race that had been tightening already . And it remains the case that the margin is closing because Trump is gaining ground from undecided voters and third- party candidates, rather than Clinton losing support. The fact is, though, that the data we’ve gotten during the past few days is consistent with a reasonably competitive race — although one in which Clinton has the advantage — especially given the significant disagreement in the polls and the relatively high uncertainty surrounding the polling this year .

But we also haven’t seen many recent high-quality state polls from states such as Pennsylvania , Michigan and Wisconsin , which are a key part of Clinton’s electoral firewall . The next set of results from those states will go a long way toward determining just how nervous Democrats wind up being. But at this point, the election is a long way from being in the bag for Clinton. Both FiveThirtyEight’s models and betting markets give Trump about a 1 in 4 chance of winning the election, about the same chance as the Chicago Cubs have of winning the World Series .

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#1: buckeroo    To: ConservingFreedom (#0)

We got another set of mixed results on Monday on whether the election has tightened ...

I call your article BULLSHIT. Just last week, before this latest email scandel, the MSM polls haad Clinton somewhere in the statosphere of +10 point above Trump. All of a suddent, the MSM polls suggest Trump is leading.

MSM polls are total BULLSHIT.

buckeroo posted on 2016-10-31 20:03:47   Reply   Private Reply


#2: ConservingFreedom    To: buckeroo (#1)

Just last week, before this latest email scandel, the MSM polls haad Clinton somewhere in the statosphere of +10 point above Trump. All of a suddent, the MSM polls suggest Trump is leading.

There was a cluster of 4 polls last week showing Hitlery with a double-digit lead - but even for their week they were in a minority. And only the LA Times/USC poll shows Trump with a lead.

ConservingFreedom posted on 2016-10-31 20:09:44   Reply   Private Reply


#3: buckeroo    To: ConservingFreedom (#2)

The LATSlimes is using a statistical algorithm based on a AI program that USC developed. More total BULLSHIT.

buckeroo posted on 2016-10-31 20:15:27   Reply   Private Reply


#4: paraclete    To: ConservingFreedom (#0)

So he'coming up trumps is he?

paraclete posted on 2016-11-01 00:00:52   Reply   Private Reply