A lot of news organizations report the Real Clear Politics poll average.
However that poll averages Registered voter polls and Likely Voter polls without any adjustment, in addition they make no allowance for the incumbent effect or sample size, scoring a poll of 3000 the same as a poll of 800.
To explain for those that don't know, likely Voter polls are more predictive of final election results and should be given more weight. In addition the incumbent rule says that undecided tend to split in favor of the challenger. The average seems to be that 80% go to the challenger about 80% of the time. The last tweak is to subtract the third party vote from the undecideds before distributing it.
This an old school BASIC program to do just that. I wrote it years ago and have updated it for this election.
The input is the same data that RCL averages for their result.
it runs on a free interpreter you can get from
http://justbasic.com/
just cut and paste the following text into the JBasic edit window and click the run arrow.
10 Input "Sample size (0 to exit) = "; SS
If SS = 0 then end
Input "Respondent code L for Likely Voter or R for registered voter = "; R$
If R$ = "L" or R$ = "l" then SS = SS * 1.1
If R$ = "R" or R$ = "r" then SS = SS * .9
Input "Obama % = " ; OP
Input "Romney % = " ; RP
PC = PC + 1
OP = OP / 100
RP = RP / 100
RT = RT + RP * SS
OT = OT + OP * SS
TS = TS + SS
Print
R = RT / TS * 100
O = OT / TS * 100
print "----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------"
print "Romney ";using("##.#",R);"% delta ";using("##.#",R - O);"%"
print "Obama ";using("##.#",O);"% delta ";using("##.#",O - R);"%"
print
Print "80% of undecides go to incumbent 80% of time with 2% going to third party"
print
print "With 80/80/2 Incumbent Rule applied Romney = ";using("##.#", (98 - R - O ) * .8 + R);" %"
print "With 80/80/2 Incumbent Rule applied Obama = ";using("##.#", (98 - R - O ) * .2 + O );" %"
print
print "-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------"
print
goto 10
Here is a printout for today's RCP data
Sample size (0 to exit) = 1500
Respondent code L for Likely Voter or R for registered voter = L
Obama % = 44
Romney % = 48
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Romney 48.0% delta 4.0%
Obama 44.0% delta -4.0%
80% of undecides go to incumbent 80% of time with 2% going to third party
With 80/80/2 Incumbent Rule applied Romney = 52.8 %
With 80/80/2 Incumbent Rule applied Obama = 45.2 %
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sample size (0 to exit) = 3050
Respondent code L for Likely Voter or R for registered voter = R
Obama % = 45
Romney % = 46
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Romney 46.8% delta 2.1%
Obama 44.6% delta -2.1%
80% of undecides go to incumbent 80% of time with 2% going to third party
With 80/80/2 Incumbent Rule applied Romney = 52.1 %
With 80/80/2 Incumbent Rule applied Obama = 45.9 %
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sample size (0 to exit) = 848
Respondent code L for Likely Voter or R for registered voter = R
Obama % = 45
Romney % = 44
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Romney 46.3% delta 1.7%
Obama 44.7% delta -1.7%
80% of undecides go to incumbent 80% of time with 2% going to third party
With 80/80/2 Incumbent Rule applied Romney = 51.9 %
With 80/80/2 Incumbent Rule applied Obama = 46.1 %
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sample size (0 to exit) = 841
Respondent code L for Likely Voter or R for registered voter = R
Obama % = 46
Romney % = 42
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Romney 45.8% delta 0.9%
Obama 44.8% delta -0.9%
80% of undecides go to incumbent 80% of time with 2% going to third party
With 80/80/2 Incumbent Rule applied Romney = 51.7 %
With 80/80/2 Incumbent Rule applied Obama = 46.3 %
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sample size (0 to exit) = 1152
Respondent code L for Likely Voter or R for registered voter = L
Obama % = 47
Romney % = 46
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Romney 45.8% delta 0.6%
Obama 45.2% delta -0.6%
80% of undecides go to incumbent 80% of time with 2% going to third party
With 80/80/2 Incumbent Rule applied Romney = 51.4 %
With 80/80/2 Incumbent Rule applied Obama = 46.6 %
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sample size (0 to exit) = 907
Respondent code L for Likely Voter or R for registered voter = R
Obama % = 43
Romney % = 43
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Romney 45.5% delta 0.5%
Obama 45.0% delta -0.5%
80% of undecides go to incumbent 80% of time with 2% going to third party
With 80/80/2 Incumbent Rule applied Romney = 51.5 %
With 80/80/2 Incumbent Rule applied Obama = 46.5 %
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sample size (0 to exit) = 895
Respondent code L for Likely Voter or R for registered voter = R
Obama % = 49
Romney % = 46
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Romney 45.6% delta 0.2%
Obama 45.4% delta -0.2%
80% of undecides go to incumbent 80% of time with 2% going to third party
With 80/80/2 Incumbent Rule applied Romney = 51.2 %
With 80/80/2 Incumbent Rule applied Obama = 46.8 %
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sample size (0 to exit) =