Key to the Polling Data
The link to Polling data. contains all the polling data for polls starting on or after Sept. 1. Each line contains one poll and has 16 comma-separated fields as follows.
1. Middle day of the poll with Sept. 1 = 1.0. Example: Oct 2-5 poll:Oct 2 is day 32, Oct 5 is day 35, so middle is 33.5.
2. Length of the poll in days.
3. State name.
4. Number of electoral votes the state has.
5. Percentage for John Kerry.
6. Percentage for George Bush.
7. Percentage for Ralph Nader if he was included.
8. Date the poll ended.
9-15. Empty to make cut-and-paste to the spreadsheet easier.
16. Pollster-length of poll (repeats field 2)
The file is sorted ascending on the state name as the primary key. Within a state, the polls are sorted on field 1 (middle date) in reverse order. If two polls have the same middle date, the tied polls are listed from shortest polling period to longest. When averages are computed for the spreadsheet and map, the top entry is always used and the next two are used if they are within the 7-day look-back window.