Why can’t we find out who won the election until after November 5?
In 2020, media outlets could not announce the winner until four days after the election. And, this year, we expect it to take even longer.
Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump are in the heat as the presidential election is just over a week away.
The latest batch of polls released since Sunday show the two candidates tied in a race, though polls by CBS and ABC give the vice president a slight lead over former President Trump. The latest TIPP poll, however, found for the third day in a row, Trump and Harris were tied at 48%.
Amid a tight race, both candidates are focusing the final stretch of the 2024 presidential election on Michigan and Georgia, two key battleground states that could decide the race for the White House.
Here’s what to know about the presidential poll on Monday, October 28:
Election 2024 Live Updates: Kamala Harris, Donald Trump’s Court Swing States; Latest Elections
In ongoing coverage of TIPP, Harris, Trump are tied at 48 percent.
Harris and Trump are virtually tied in TIPP’s tracking poll as of Monday morning.
The poll of 1,288 likely voters from Oct. 25 to Oct. 27 showed the two candidates tied at 48 percent with a margin of error of 2.7 percentage points.
“With both campaigns in full gear, we expect this razor-thin race to remain within a tight band,” TIPP Insights said.
The new poll shows Trump making significant gains among voters with a high school education (+13.9 points), black voters (+8.1) and seniors (+8). In contrast, Harris has gained ground among voters with at least some college education (+6.3 points) and independent/other voters (+5 points).
According to the TIPP poll, a growing sense of dissatisfaction with the economy is reflected in the run-up to the election, with 53% of those polled saying they feel worse now than they did before the pandemic.
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Trump 48%, Harris 47% in new USA TODAY/Suffolk poll
Trump and Harris are tied about 48% to 47% in Wisconsin, a new state poll of 500 likely voters found.
The USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll was conducted Oct. 20-23 with a margin of error of 4.4 percentage points.
Harris has a 50% to 47% lead among 300 likely voters in Door County, a bellwether state. The results are within a margin of error of 5.7 percentage points.
Wisconsin, which has 10 electoral votes and is considered a “blue wall” state, is one of several key swing states where both Trump and Harris are looking to help propel them to the presidency. Trump flipped all three states in 2016, helping him win the presidency. In 2020, Biden won back all three states.
– Rebecca Morin, USA Today
New Special Survey: Harris, a Trump battleground locked in dead heat in Wisconsin.
In an ABC News poll, Harris led Trump 49 percent to 47 percent.
Harris held a slight lead among likely voters nationally in the latest ABC News/Ipsos poll released Sunday, which surveyed a total of 2,808 adults.
The poll showed Harris leading 49% to 47% of 2,392 registered voters surveyed. When considering likely voters (1,913 in this poll), Harris also has a slight edge, 47% to Trump’s 51%.
The survey had a margin of sampling error of 2 percentage points.
“Compared to earlier this month, Harris has regained a more traditional Democratic advantage among Hispanics and widened her advantage among suburban women, while remaining strong among core groups, including blacks,” the poll said. “Trump pushes back in rural areas and among non-college white men, and competes among young men.”
The poll was conducted from October 18 to October 22.
New polls show that most of those surveyed see Trump as the best candidate to deal with issues including immigration and the economy. Harris, meanwhile, was seen among those surveyed as the best to tackle issues like abortion and health care.
The CBS poll has Harris leading by 1 percentage point.
The latest CBS News poll released Sunday also has Harris with a slight 1 percentage point lead over Trump.
The poll of 2,161 registered voters showed Harris leading 50% to 49% with a margin of error of 2.6 points. It was held from 23 to 25 October.
As in most national elections, the economy proved to be a major concern among those surveyed, with 84% saying it would be a major factor in voting this year. More than half (53%) of those surveyed said it was getting worse.
Things to keep in mind while polling
The margin of error describes how accurately we can trust the survey results to be representative of the entire population.
When a candidate’s lead is “within” the margin of error, it is considered a “statistical tie,” according to the Pew Research Center.
Pew also found that a majority of pollsters have changed their ways since the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, where Trump’s performance was not significantly reduced.
Eric Lagata covers breaking and trending news for USA Today. Reach her at elagatta@gannett.com.