People today can look for more and more information on the internet. One sort of information political folks often want is how the candidates are doing in the electoral college.
MyDD's electoral maps purport to provide that information. And they are cited regularly on this site.
It is an important service, well worth providing.Yet there is very limited transparency when it comes to the information. No one can tell:
a) Whether the data is based on one poll or a poll average of some kind,
b) If it is a poll average, what particular polls are included and what rule is used to decide which polls remain in the average,
c) How recent the poll or polls are,
d) The trend from the last poll conducted by the same polling organization for that state,
e) The organizations that conducted the poll orpolls,
f) The sample size and margin of error for the poll,
g) Whether there are additional data, such as internals for the poll, that would shed light on the dynamics of the race, and
h) How recently a state's data and the electoral map as a while has been updated.
And, at the same time, the current maps have some very real discrepancies from what other, more transparent sites show. For example, realclearpolitics shows Obama over McCain in PA while MyDD does not, and realclearpolitics shows Clinton losing to McCain in Wisconsin while MyDD does not.
In my opinion, for the readers of MyDD to be able to use these data well in their discussions and analyses, more information is necessary.
Please vote in my poll to indicate whether you think more and more transparent information for those electoral votes maps would be of benefit.
And, of course, discussion is most welcome. Perhaps we could convey to site administrators that we very much appreciate them posting the electoral vote maps, but also let them know what information would be most useful.
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