2004FIGHTINTXAG said:
Not buying a 16 point swing in Nate Silver's model based on a less than 1% difference in PA.
It isn't just due to that. Silver's code is not public, so can't be precise with exactly where shifts come from, but probably the largest contributor was the expiration of a "convention bounce adjustment" for Harris.
The model "expects" certain things to happen based on historical precedent, for example, presidential candidates have typically seen about a +4 increase in polls in the week or two after the candidate's party convention. Since polls for Harris only went up by 1 or 2 points, the model sees that as an underperformance and adjusts her odds accordingly.
You could argue (as a lot of people on Team D did on Twitter and Silver's website) that the convention bounce probably doesn't exist any more to any meaningful degree. In any event, unless you were wagering on the election during the weeks in question it doesn't matter, as the "bounce" is considered a temporary event in any case.
A "polls only" version of the model would have had Harris as a very narrow favorite over the past month, but clearly in toss-up range the whole time.
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