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The last 12 hours on the £420m Betfair next President market – politicalbetting.com

SystemSystem Posts: 11,019
edited November 2020 in General
imageThe last 12 hours on the £420m Betfair next President market – politicalbetting.com

The Betdata.io chart tells the story of the night as seen on Betfair where there is no outcome yet but punters think that it will go to Trump.

Read the full story here

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Comments

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    MattWMattW Posts: 18,512
    edited November 2020
    First?

    Just like .. er .. one of them.

    Everyone else must still be hung over.

    Thanks for the Zoom call, @Barnesian .

    Nice crisp, sunny day. Time for some garden.
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    I will put the kettle on...
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    Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 26,592
    Trafalgar must have done pretty well as far as pollsters are concerned.
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    MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 25,172
    Andy_JS said:

    Trafalgar must have done pretty well as far as pollsters are concerned.

    If they (he) are (is) indeed a pollster.
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    Fishing said:

    Just woke up and this reminds me very much of Paddy Ashdown's comment on the 2010 UK election - the people have spoken, but we've no idea what they said.

    I think he stole that from Bill Clinton talking about Florida, dunno who Bill got it from...
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    Clearly a significant proportion of Americans don't want to live in a democracy. They want a monarchy - peopled by reality TV stars.

    Jefferson and co must be turning in their graves. I suppose you can say their experiment worked for a couple of hundred years.
  • Options
    IanB2IanB2 Posts: 47,274
    isam said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Trafalgar must have done pretty well as far as pollsters are concerned.

    What is the next event that people can smugly take the mickey out of @HYUFD over his predictions, before he’s right and they’re wrong?
    The acid test will come when the non-conservative wins. If HY successfully predicts that, he will deserve kudos.
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    I still think Biden is value and it’s very much 50/50 at this. He needs, essentially, 2 of GA, MI, WI, PA and NC.

    Let’s put NC in the Trump column immediately because it’s very very likely he will get a narrow win there.

    The other states are harder to read:

    GA - looks like it will be a nail biter. There are enough votes out there for Biden to take the victory, but it is going to be very very close.

    PA - there are a lot of people suggesting the mail in ballots are going to bridge the gap. I think that looks a wee bit optimistic given the current Trump tally, but let’s charitably say this is a 60/40 percent chance for Trump.

    MI - genuinely up in the air from my reading of the situation.

    WI - again there is that gap that looks pretty sizeable but Milwaukee has yet to report and is expected to be very sizeable Dem. I think you give the edge to Biden here.

    All in all, it’s on a knife edge but I could see Biden doing it. His team appear to be projecting confidence while Trump’s look defensive, if that is any reading of the situation, but it’s difficult to know if that’s from a reading of the campaign team’s view of the situation or whether it’s just projection.
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    FishingFishing Posts: 4,561

    Fishing said:

    Just woke up and this reminds me very much of Paddy Ashdown's comment on the 2010 UK election - the people have spoken, but we've no idea what they said.

    I think he stole that from Bill Clinton talking about Florida, dunno who Bill got it from...
    Seems like you're right, according to:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1114491.stm

    "The people have spoken, but it will take a while to determine exactly what they said."
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    One of the very worst parts of all this is that Farage gets to say he was right.

    At least for another few hours.
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    guybrushguybrush Posts: 237
    Morning all. Well that's the last time I pay attention to US polls. File under "for entertainment only" I think.

    I must admit, the numbers coming out of AP don't look great for Biden. We will see.

    Shout out to @Barnesian and the rest of the Zoom crew. Some really useful analysis, a very educational experience all round. Certainly better punditry than CNN!
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    alex_alex_ Posts: 7,518

    I still think Biden is value and it’s very much 50/50 at this. He needs, essentially, 2 of GA, MI, WI, PA and NC.

    Let’s put NC in the Trump column immediately because it’s very very likely he will get a narrow win there.

    The other states are harder to read:

    GA - looks like it will be a nail biter. There are enough votes out there for Biden to take the victory, but it is going to be very very close.

    PA - there are a lot of people suggesting the mail in ballots are going to bridge the gap. I think that looks a wee bit optimistic given the current Trump tally, but let’s charitably say this is a 60/40 percent chance for Trump.

    MI - genuinely up in the air from my reading of the situation.

    WI - again there is that gap that looks pretty sizeable but Milwaukee has yet to report and is expected to be very sizeable Dem. I think you give the edge to Biden here.

    All in all, it’s on a knife edge but I could see Biden doing it. His team appear to be projecting confidence while Trump’s look defensive, if that is any reading of the situation, but it’s difficult to know if that’s from a reading of the campaign team’s view of the situation or whether it’s just projection.

    There is another issue about trying to decide if the gap can be closed. There is an assumption that if it's Dem areas to come then it's good for Biden, if it's Rep areas to come it's good for Trump.

    But if it's just Mail-in ballots to come, then it doesn't matter if it's a Rep or Dem area. Both are likely to close the gap for Biden.

    Also - beware of the "% vote reported" stat. I don't think this is anything other than an estimate. It's not like the UK where the first thing they do is count the number of ballot papers and you know the numbers of votes cast, before you know how they were cast.
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    contrariancontrarian Posts: 5,818
    Morning all. I've got three words for our American cousins.

    ''State returning officer''
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    gealbhangealbhan Posts: 2,362
    If all the votes that came in on or before the day in WI, Mi and PA are carefully and properly counted, and Biden win only 2 of them, I don’t understand on what basis it goes into any court. It would be pretty solidly legit. And for Biden to win all three it would be comprehensive win. So I don’t understand the betting markets, what are they waiting for?

    Also the amount of Dem votes in Georgia puts them in with at least 50/50 shout for the senate too?
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    isamisam Posts: 40,924
    edited November 2020
    IanB2 said:

    isam said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Trafalgar must have done pretty well as far as pollsters are concerned.

    What is the next event that people can smugly take the mickey out of @HYUFD over his predictions, before he’s right and they’re wrong?
    The acid test will come when the non-conservative wins. If HY successfully predicts that, he will deserve kudos.
    Maybe Tralfagar’s way of coming to their conclusions is better than traditional opinion polling
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    DougSealDougSeal Posts: 11,138

    I still think Biden is value and it’s very much 50/50 at this. He needs, essentially, 2 of GA, MI, WI, PA and NC.

    Let’s put NC in the Trump column immediately because it’s very very likely he will get a narrow win there.

    The other states are harder to read:

    GA - looks like it will be a nail biter. There are enough votes out there for Biden to take the victory, but it is going to be very very close.

    PA - there are a lot of people suggesting the mail in ballots are going to bridge the gap. I think that looks a wee bit optimistic given the current Trump tally, but let’s charitably say this is a 60/40 percent chance for Trump.

    MI - genuinely up in the air from my reading of the situation.

    WI - again there is that gap that looks pretty sizeable but Milwaukee has yet to report and is expected to be very sizeable Dem. I think you give the edge to Biden here.

    All in all, it’s on a knife edge but I could see Biden doing it. His team appear to be projecting confidence while Trump’s look defensive, if that is any reading of the situation, but it’s difficult to know if that’s from a reading of the campaign team’s view of the situation or whether it’s just projection.

    Trump's team have just issued three lawsuits in Pennsylvania. Maybe its a belt-and-braces approach but do you really think they would have done that if they did not hold some doubt as to the outcome of the race?
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    EPGEPG Posts: 6,006
    IanB2 said:

    isam said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Trafalgar must have done pretty well as far as pollsters are concerned.

    What is the next event that people can smugly take the mickey out of @HYUFD over his predictions, before he’s right and they’re wrong?
    The acid test will come when the non-conservative wins. If HY successfully predicts that, he will deserve kudos.
    I proposed Herdson points for successfully predicting the 2017 outlier in the other direction. Outside two large English-speaking countries, there have been a lot of results like J Trudeau I and arguably J Trudeau II which could also contribute to points.
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    MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 50,115
    Do we now have the prospect of weeks of postals being scrutinised and validated? Multiple votes by the same voter, fictitious voters, illegals registered as voters, dead voters....

    If there is found to be a degree of fraud within there, intended to favour the Democrats, then that will really hurt them. They will be seen as trying to steal an election. The justification of "But it's to stop Trump!" will not play well.

    Reminds of the saying "Never argue with an idiot". They drag you down to their level - and then win with experience.
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    rkrkrkrkrkrk Posts: 7,908

    I still think Biden is value and it’s very much 50/50 at this. He needs, essentially, 2 of GA, MI, WI, PA and NC.

    Let’s put NC in the Trump column immediately because it’s very very likely he will get a narrow win there.

    The other states are harder to read:

    GA - looks like it will be a nail biter. There are enough votes out there for Biden to take the victory, but it is going to be very very close.

    PA - there are a lot of people suggesting the mail in ballots are going to bridge the gap. I think that looks a wee bit optimistic given the current Trump tally, but let’s charitably say this is a 60/40 percent chance for Trump.

    MI - genuinely up in the air from my reading of the situation.

    WI - again there is that gap that looks pretty sizeable but Milwaukee has yet to report and is expected to be very sizeable Dem. I think you give the edge to Biden here.

    All in all, it’s on a knife edge but I could see Biden doing it. His team appear to be projecting confidence while Trump’s look defensive, if that is any reading of the situation, but it’s difficult to know if that’s from a reading of the campaign team’s view of the situation or whether it’s just projection.

    Very crudely - I have put all the nytimes county results into a spreadsheet, then assumed the unreported votes go as their counties have currently gone. That doesn't include absentee ballots (I think).

    I thought when doing this I would see that Biden has lots of votes to come in. But actually it doesn't look that way.
    It looks like the gap widens in all 3 states? Maybe i've miscalculated somehow...
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    Clearly a significant proportion of Americans don't want to live in a democracy. They want a monarchy - peopled by reality TV stars.

    Jefferson and co must be turning in their graves. I suppose you can say their experiment worked for a couple of hundred years.

    Nah, we can't explain this away like that.

    If Trump wins it's because Americans thought he'd make the better President for them. We need to understand why, and not grab fig leaves.
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    MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 44,377

    Clearly a significant proportion of Americans don't want to live in a democracy. They want a monarchy - peopled by reality TV stars.

    Jefferson and co must be turning in their graves. I suppose you can say their experiment worked for a couple of hundred years.

    Andrew Jackson approves of this message. Telling the supreme court to pound sand - when the supreme court ruled that he couldn't just ignore a treaty signed in the name of the US - was very Trumpian....

    Davy Crockett also says hi - the reality TV star, before reality TV....
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    not_on_firenot_on_fire Posts: 4,341
    Andy_JS said:

    Trafalgar must have done pretty well as far as pollsters are concerned.

    The stopped clock may be right again. They predicted Trump to win Minnesota; Biden won it by 8!
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    QuincelQuincel Posts: 3,949

    Do we now have the prospect of weeks of postals being scrutinised and validated? Multiple votes by the same voter, fictitious voters, illegals registered as voters, dead voters....

    If there is found to be a degree of fraud within there, intended to favour the Democrats, then that will really hurt them. They will be seen as trying to steal an election. The justification of "But it's to stop Trump!" will not play well.

    Reminds of the saying "Never argue with an idiot". They drag you down to their level - and then win with experience.

    The GOP will try and go to court ASAP to cause this, but it looks like the remaining votes will be counted (at least the first time) within the next 48 hours and mostly within the next 12.
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    DougSealDougSeal Posts: 11,138
    https://fivethirtyeight.com/live-blog/2020-election-results-coverage/

    "Here’s a look at what we know about the outstanding vote in each battleground state:

    Arizona: While some outlets, such as the Associated Press, have projected Arizona for Biden, ABC News has not. Before the election, officials did warn that any super-close races might not be resolved until the last votes are counted on Thursday or Friday. However, the race isn’t that close right now (Biden 52 percent, Trump 47 percent), so we might see a projection sooner.

    Wisconsin: 81 percent of the expected vote is already reporting here, and the rest should trickle in over the next few hours. Earlier tonight, Milwaukee County (expected to be among the last places to finish counting) said to expect semi-final results around 6 a.m. Eastern.

    Georgia: The big holdup here is Fulton County, which as of 2 a.m. was home to most of the outstanding ballots. The count there was delayed by a burst pipe (no ballots were damaged), and election officials told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution their goal was to go into Wednesday with just 20,000 ballots left to count. However, the secretary of state estimated those results would not be released until the afternoon.

    Michigan: There are still hundreds of thousands of absentee ballots to be counted here, and it’s unclear if counting will continue throughout the night. Election officials did say earlier on Tuesday that they expected counting to wrap up by Wednesday night.

    Pennsylvania: Major counties such as Philadelphia and Allegheny have reported their last ballots of the night (although Philadelphia will continue to count around the clock). Going into the election, many county and state election officials predicted that results wouldn’t approach completion until Friday.

    North Carolina: 95 percent of the expected vote has already been counted here, so it seems quite possible that all we’re waiting on are late-arriving mail-in ballots, which have until Nov. 12 to arrive. That means we could be waiting over a week for a call here.

    Maine: Honestly, this is anyone’s guess. Election officials are taking much longer here than they originally expected."
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    CyclefreeCyclefree Posts: 25,203

    I will put the kettle on...

    I already have. I think I may do some gardening - or rather cutting back of overgrown stuff - before heading back up North.

    I take no pleasure in saying this but I did say that I was not convinced by all this talk of Biden landslides and that I feared there were more shy Trump voters than people were allowing for. Anyway, let's see.

    One thing we can all agree on: the USA badly needs an Electoral Commission and some clear rules on postal voting and vote counting. The way they do it is all a mess.

    Talking of which the role of Chair of the Electoral Commission over here is being advertised, for anyone interested.
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    alex_alex_ Posts: 7,518
    edited November 2020
    Just a thought about the polls. How do the pollsters determine the demographic makeup of a state when coming up with their weightings? Are they at the worst point now because the annual census was 10 years ago, and every year that passes from that changes things and increases the amount of educated guesswork.
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    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 116,991
    Thanks Barnesian and OGH for organising the Zoom last night, was enjoyable to catch up with the PBers who joined and go over the results together in one of the closest presidential elections in US history
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    isamisam Posts: 40,924
    edited November 2020

    Clearly a significant proportion of Americans don't want to live in a democracy. They want a monarchy - peopled by reality TV stars.

    Jefferson and co must be turning in their graves. I suppose you can say their experiment worked for a couple of hundred years.

    Nah, we can't explain this away like that.

    If Trump wins it's because Americans thought he'd make the better President for them. We need to understand why, and not grab fig leaves.
    Fat chance of that happening, don’t you remember Brexit? The bubble are trapped in a world where opinion polling & progressive theories are ring fenced, non negotiables
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    DavidLDavidL Posts: 51,268
    Cyclefree said:

    I will put the kettle on...

    I already have. I think I may do some gardening - or rather cutting back of overgrown stuff - before heading back up North.

    I take no pleasure in saying this but I did say that I was not convinced by all this talk of Biden landslides and that I feared there were more shy Trump voters than people were allowing for. Anyway, let's see.

    One thing we can all agree on: the USA badly needs an Electoral Commission and some clear rules on postal voting and vote counting. The way they do it is all a mess.

    Talking of which the role of Chair of the Electoral Commission over here is being advertised, for anyone interested.
    The words "poisoned" and "chalice" just don't seem adequate.
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    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 116,991

    Andy_JS said:

    Trafalgar must have done pretty well as far as pollsters are concerned.

    The stopped clock may be right again. They predicted Trump to win Minnesota; Biden won it by 8!
    They had Biden up in Minnesota I think though they did get Arizona wrong
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    DavidLDavidL Posts: 51,268
    So to be clear from those charts the consensus view is that when the dust settles Trump has probably won this?

    Jeez.
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    IanB2IanB2 Posts: 47,274
    isam said:

    IanB2 said:

    isam said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Trafalgar must have done pretty well as far as pollsters are concerned.

    What is the next event that people can smugly take the mickey out of @HYUFD over his predictions, before he’s right and they’re wrong?
    The acid test will come when the non-conservative wins. If HY successfully predicts that, he will deserve kudos.
    Maybe Tralfagar’s way of coming to their conclusions is better than traditional opinion polling
    For sure. It is possible that HY is a shrewd judge of evidence and selected that, based on his experience, instinct and judgement, that he felt provided the best pointer of how things might go. And didn't bother to worry PB readers about the why and wherefore.

    However it's also possible that he tipped the conservative to win because he always tips the conservative and wants the conservative to win, and simply dredges up whatever data he can find to support a preconceived outcome.

    In the latter case, the surprise isn't HY's forecast, but the conservative win (if indeed that transpires).

    As I said a few days back, if you always cheer for Arsenal, and Arsenal wins, you're a fan, not a pundit.
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    MattWMattW Posts: 18,512
    edited November 2020
    Have listened to 10 minutes of the Beeboids, who are now back on the vicissitudes of life as a penguin.

    I'm off to listen to music from one A Fältskog for half an hour. Blonde from Abba - 70 and a half last month. Then off for the pre-lockdown bike ride.
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    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 116,991

    Clearly a significant proportion of Americans don't want to live in a democracy. They want a monarchy - peopled by reality TV stars.

    Jefferson and co must be turning in their graves. I suppose you can say their experiment worked for a couple of hundred years.

    Nah, we can't explain this away like that.

    If Trump wins it's because Americans thought he'd make the better President for them. We need to understand why, and not grab fig leaves.
    However Trump even if he wins the EC will become the first re elected US President never to have won the national popular vote, a majority of Americans will never have voted for Trump
  • Options
    contrariancontrarian Posts: 5,818
    DougSeal said:

    https://fivethirtyeight.com/live-blog/2020-election-results-coverage/

    "Here’s a look at what we know about the outstanding vote in each battleground state:

    Arizona: While some outlets, such as the Associated Press, have projected Arizona for Biden, ABC News has not. Before the election, officials did warn that any super-close races might not be resolved until the last votes are counted on Thursday or Friday. However, the race isn’t that close right now (Biden 52 percent, Trump 47 percent), so we might see a projection sooner.

    Wisconsin: 81 percent of the expected vote is already reporting here, and the rest should trickle in over the next few hours. Earlier tonight, Milwaukee County (expected to be among the last places to finish counting) said to expect semi-final results around 6 a.m. Eastern.

    Georgia: The big holdup here is Fulton County, which as of 2 a.m. was home to most of the outstanding ballots. The count there was delayed by a burst pipe (no ballots were damaged), and election officials told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution their goal was to go into Wednesday with just 20,000 ballots left to count. However, the secretary of state estimated those results would not be released until the afternoon.

    Michigan: There are still hundreds of thousands of absentee ballots to be counted here, and it’s unclear if counting will continue throughout the night. Election officials did say earlier on Tuesday that they expected counting to wrap up by Wednesday night.

    Pennsylvania: Major counties such as Philadelphia and Allegheny have reported their last ballots of the night (although Philadelphia will continue to count around the clock). Going into the election, many county and state election officials predicted that results wouldn’t approach completion until Friday.

    North Carolina: 95 percent of the expected vote has already been counted here, so it seems quite possible that all we’re waiting on are late-arriving mail-in ballots, which have until Nov. 12 to arrive. That means we could be waiting over a week for a call here.

    Maine: Honestly, this is anyone’s guess. Election officials are taking much longer here than they originally expected."

    Good summation thanks
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    Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 26,592
    Decision Desk says >99% of votes are in in Wisconsin. Is this right?

    https://results.decisiondeskhq.com
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    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 116,991
    edited November 2020
    IanB2 said:

    isam said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Trafalgar must have done pretty well as far as pollsters are concerned.

    What is the next event that people can smugly take the mickey out of @HYUFD over his predictions, before he’s right and they’re wrong?
    The acid test will come when the non-conservative wins. If HY successfully predicts that, he will deserve kudos.
    I did say Trudeau would win re election last year which was not guaranteed and he was the leading non-conservative in Canada so I do not always predict the conservative will win
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    alex_alex_ Posts: 7,518
    rkrkrk said:

    I still think Biden is value and it’s very much 50/50 at this. He needs, essentially, 2 of GA, MI, WI, PA and NC.

    Let’s put NC in the Trump column immediately because it’s very very likely he will get a narrow win there.

    The other states are harder to read:

    GA - looks like it will be a nail biter. There are enough votes out there for Biden to take the victory, but it is going to be very very close.

    PA - there are a lot of people suggesting the mail in ballots are going to bridge the gap. I think that looks a wee bit optimistic given the current Trump tally, but let’s charitably say this is a 60/40 percent chance for Trump.

    MI - genuinely up in the air from my reading of the situation.

    WI - again there is that gap that looks pretty sizeable but Milwaukee has yet to report and is expected to be very sizeable Dem. I think you give the edge to Biden here.

    All in all, it’s on a knife edge but I could see Biden doing it. His team appear to be projecting confidence while Trump’s look defensive, if that is any reading of the situation, but it’s difficult to know if that’s from a reading of the campaign team’s view of the situation or whether it’s just projection.

    Very crudely - I have put all the nytimes county results into a spreadsheet, then assumed the unreported votes go as their counties have currently gone. That doesn't include absentee ballots (I think).

    I thought when doing this I would see that Biden has lots of votes to come in. But actually it doesn't look that way.
    It looks like the gap widens in all 3 states? Maybe i've miscalculated somehow...
    Have you assumed that all votes to come mirror the votes cast so far? Whereas actually heavily Republican districts could have significant Biden votes outstanding, because Mail in.

    It's not like a normal election where mail in ballots are a small proportion, and the outstanding votes are cast on the same basis as those already counted. So you can just work it out by whether areas to come are strong Dem or strong Republican.
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    FoxyFoxy Posts: 44,599
    Time to get some fresh air.

    Not a great night financially, about £400-500 in the red depending on how the spreads work out. My worst PB election night.

    I hope Biden scrapes it, looking at that gurning orange oaf for another four years is not going to be pleasant, but could be worse, at least I am not American. It would be good if he would have to deal with some of his own mess, but I expect he will just run up the deficit and leave the bill for the next POTUS.
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    contrariancontrarian Posts: 5,818
    HYUFD said:

    Clearly a significant proportion of Americans don't want to live in a democracy. They want a monarchy - peopled by reality TV stars.

    Jefferson and co must be turning in their graves. I suppose you can say their experiment worked for a couple of hundred years.

    Nah, we can't explain this away like that.

    If Trump wins it's because Americans thought he'd make the better President for them. We need to understand why, and not grab fig leaves.
    However Trump even if he wins the EC will become the first re elected US President never to have won the national popular vote, a majority of Americans will never have voted for Trump
    YOu have to wonder, whoever wins this, its unlikely the other side will ever accept the result.
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    alex_alex_ Posts: 7,518
    DougSeal said:

    https://fivethirtyeight.com/live-blog/2020-election-results-coverage/

    "Here’s a look at what we know about the outstanding vote in each battleground state:

    Arizona: While some outlets, such as the Associated Press, have projected Arizona for Biden, ABC News has not. Before the election, officials did warn that any super-close races might not be resolved until the last votes are counted on Thursday or Friday. However, the race isn’t that close right now (Biden 52 percent, Trump 47 percent), so we might see a projection sooner.

    Wisconsin: 81 percent of the expected vote is already reporting here, and the rest should trickle in over the next few hours. Earlier tonight, Milwaukee County (expected to be among the last places to finish counting) said to expect semi-final results around 6 a.m. Eastern.

    Georgia: The big holdup here is Fulton County, which as of 2 a.m. was home to most of the outstanding ballots. The count there was delayed by a burst pipe (no ballots were damaged), and election officials told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution their goal was to go into Wednesday with just 20,000 ballots left to count. However, the secretary of state estimated those results would not be released until the afternoon.

    Michigan: There are still hundreds of thousands of absentee ballots to be counted here, and it’s unclear if counting will continue throughout the night. Election officials did say earlier on Tuesday that they expected counting to wrap up by Wednesday night.

    Pennsylvania: Major counties such as Philadelphia and Allegheny have reported their last ballots of the night (although Philadelphia will continue to count around the clock). Going into the election, many county and state election officials predicted that results wouldn’t approach completion until Friday.

    North Carolina: 95 percent of the expected vote has already been counted here, so it seems quite possible that all we’re waiting on are late-arriving mail-in ballots, which have until Nov. 12 to arrive. That means we could be waiting over a week for a call here.

    Maine: Honestly, this is anyone’s guess. Election officials are taking much longer here than they originally expected."

    Isn't Maine irrelevant now?

  • Options
    gealbhangealbhan Posts: 2,362

    Clearly a significant proportion of Americans don't want to live in a democracy. They want a monarchy - peopled by reality TV stars.

    Jefferson and co must be turning in their graves. I suppose you can say their experiment worked for a couple of hundred years.

    Andrew Jackson approves of this message. Telling the supreme court to pound sand - when the supreme court ruled that he couldn't just ignore a treaty signed in the name of the US - was very Trumpian....

    Davy Crockett also says hi - the reality TV star, before reality TV....
    Reality stage star. Which he then had to live up to, by adopting the same hat.

    Back to the election - the promised red mirage is clearing and we have a new president. Just. Phew.

    Time to do a days work now 🙂
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    Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 25,415
    DougSeal said:

    https://fivethirtyeight.com/live-blog/2020-election-results-coverage/

    "Here’s a look at what we know about the outstanding vote in each battleground state:

    Arizona: While some outlets, such as the Associated Press, have projected Arizona for Biden, ABC News has not. Before the election, officials did warn that any super-close races might not be resolved until the last votes are counted on Thursday or Friday. However, the race isn’t that close right now (Biden 52 percent, Trump 47 percent), so we might see a projection sooner.

    Wisconsin: 81 percent of the expected vote is already reporting here, and the rest should trickle in over the next few hours. Earlier tonight, Milwaukee County (expected to be among the last places to finish counting) said to expect semi-final results around 6 a.m. Eastern.

    Georgia: The big holdup here is Fulton County, which as of 2 a.m. was home to most of the outstanding ballots. The count there was delayed by a burst pipe (no ballots were damaged), and election officials told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution their goal was to go into Wednesday with just 20,000 ballots left to count. However, the secretary of state estimated those results would not be released until the afternoon.

    Michigan: There are still hundreds of thousands of absentee ballots to be counted here, and it’s unclear if counting will continue throughout the night. Election officials did say earlier on Tuesday that they expected counting to wrap up by Wednesday night.

    Pennsylvania: Major counties such as Philadelphia and Allegheny have reported their last ballots of the night (although Philadelphia will continue to count around the clock). Going into the election, many county and state election officials predicted that results wouldn’t approach completion until Friday.

    North Carolina: 95 percent of the expected vote has already been counted here, so it seems quite possible that all we’re waiting on are late-arriving mail-in ballots, which have until Nov. 12 to arrive. That means we could be waiting over a week for a call here.

    Maine: Honestly, this is anyone’s guess. Election officials are taking much longer here than they originally expected."

    The passage in bold seems unfathomable to me. Don't like the outcome? Get licking envelopes.
  • Options
    isamisam Posts: 40,924
    edited November 2020
    IanB2 said:

    isam said:

    IanB2 said:

    isam said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Trafalgar must have done pretty well as far as pollsters are concerned.

    What is the next event that people can smugly take the mickey out of @HYUFD over his predictions, before he’s right and they’re wrong?
    The acid test will come when the non-conservative wins. If HY successfully predicts that, he will deserve kudos.
    Maybe Tralfagar’s way of coming to their conclusions is better than traditional opinion polling
    For sure. It is possible that HY is a shrewd judge of evidence and selected that, based on his experience, instinct and judgement, that he felt provided the best pointer of how things might go. And didn't bother to worry PB readers about the why and wherefore.

    However it's also possible that he tipped the conservative to win because he always tips the conservative and wants the conservative to win, and simply dredges up whatever data he can find to support a preconceived outcome.

    In the latter case, the surprise isn't HY's forecast, but the conservative win (if indeed that transpires).

    As I said a few days back, if you always cheer for Arsenal, and Arsenal wins, you're a fan, not a pundit.
    I guess the same goes for those lefties who wrote the threads that tipped Remain, said to lay Boris for the leadership, and backed Clinton and Biden?

    Biden might still win of course. He’s only the same price now as Trump was 24 hours ago
  • Options
    AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 19,981

    I still think Biden is value and it’s very much 50/50 at this. He needs, essentially, 2 of GA, MI, WI, PA and NC.

    Let’s put NC in the Trump column immediately because it’s very very likely he will get a narrow win there.

    The other states are harder to read:

    GA - looks like it will be a nail biter. There are enough votes out there for Biden to take the victory, but it is going to be very very close.

    PA - there are a lot of people suggesting the mail in ballots are going to bridge the gap. I think that looks a wee bit optimistic given the current Trump tally, but let’s charitably say this is a 60/40 percent chance for Trump.

    MI - genuinely up in the air from my reading of the situation.

    WI - again there is that gap that looks pretty sizeable but Milwaukee has yet to report and is expected to be very sizeable Dem. I think you give the edge to Biden here.

    All in all, it’s on a knife edge but I could see Biden doing it. His team appear to be projecting confidence while Trump’s look defensive, if that is any reading of the situation, but it’s difficult to know if that’s from a reading of the campaign team’s view of the situation or whether it’s just projection.

    Isn’t there a route via Nevada where he picks up GA and WI and gets exactly 270?
  • Options
    MysticroseMysticrose Posts: 4,688
    "Another dump of votes expected shortly, we hope" ABC
  • Options
    not_on_firenot_on_fire Posts: 4,341
    edited November 2020
    Andy_JS said:

    Decision Desk says >99% of votes are in in Wisconsin. Is this right?

    https://results.decisiondeskhq.com

    No, the correct figure is 83%

    https://twitter.com/benwikler/status/1323910181894397952
  • Options
    IanB2IanB2 Posts: 47,274
    isam said:

    IanB2 said:

    isam said:

    IanB2 said:

    isam said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Trafalgar must have done pretty well as far as pollsters are concerned.

    What is the next event that people can smugly take the mickey out of @HYUFD over his predictions, before he’s right and they’re wrong?
    The acid test will come when the non-conservative wins. If HY successfully predicts that, he will deserve kudos.
    Maybe Tralfagar’s way of coming to their conclusions is better than traditional opinion polling
    For sure. It is possible that HY is a shrewd judge of evidence and selected that, based on his experience, instinct and judgement, that he felt provided the best pointer of how things might go. And didn't bother to worry PB readers about the why and wherefore.

    However it's also possible that he tipped the conservative to win because he always tips the conservative and wants the conservative to win, and simply dredges up whatever data he can find to support a preconceived outcome.

    In the latter case, the surprise isn't HY's forecast, but the conservative win (if indeed that transpires).

    As I said a few days back, if you always cheer for Arsenal, and Arsenal wins, you're a fan, not a pundit.
    I guess the same goes for those lefties who wrote the threads that tipped Remain, said to lay Boris for the leadership, and backed Clinton and Biden?

    Biden might still win of course. He’s only the same price now as Trump was 24 hours ago
    Absolutely. It's just sad that we don't win quite so often.
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    AlistairAlistair Posts: 23,670

    Andy_JS said:

    Trafalgar must have done pretty well as far as pollsters are concerned.

    The stopped clock may be right again. They predicted Trump to win Minnesota; Biden won it by 8!
    Yeah, you just ignore the one's that don't fit the narrative.

    "When polls show a right winger winning they are robust rigorous and scientific. When the show someone even vaguely left of that who doesn't align with my beliefs then they are wishywashy nonsense that can't be trusted"

    It's a solid system.
  • Options
    kjhkjh Posts: 10,628
    isam said:

    IanB2 said:

    isam said:

    IanB2 said:

    isam said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Trafalgar must have done pretty well as far as pollsters are concerned.

    What is the next event that people can smugly take the mickey out of @HYUFD over his predictions, before he’s right and they’re wrong?
    The acid test will come when the non-conservative wins. If HY successfully predicts that, he will deserve kudos.
    Maybe Tralfagar’s way of coming to their conclusions is better than traditional opinion polling
    For sure. It is possible that HY is a shrewd judge of evidence and selected that, based on his experience, instinct and judgement, that he felt provided the best pointer of how things might go. And didn't bother to worry PB readers about the why and wherefore.

    However it's also possible that he tipped the conservative to win because he always tips the conservative and wants the conservative to win, and simply dredges up whatever data he can find to support a preconceived outcome.

    In the latter case, the surprise isn't HY's forecast, but the conservative win (if indeed that transpires).

    As I said a few days back, if you always cheer for Arsenal, and Arsenal wins, you're a fan, not a pundit.
    I guess the same goes for those lefties who wrote the threads that tipped Remain, said to lay Boris for the leadership, and backed Clinton and Biden?

    Biden might still win of course. He’s only the same price now as Trump was 24 hours ago
    That is not correct though is it (well it maybe for some)? It generally was because the evidence pointed to those results. If there is any criticism is not they were biased by their own bias but that they believed crap evidence. Should they have been aware the evidence was likely to have been crap or not?
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    AlistairAlistair Posts: 23,670
    Penn counties with more than 5% of Precincts to count (no the day votes) are

    amrstrong
    bedford
    cameron
    clarion
    crawford
    erie
    fayette
    fulton
    huntingdon
    pike
    warren
    york
    All the above not done any counting yet

    Philly - 32% outstanding
    Bucks - 25% outstanding
    Mongomery - 14% outstanding
  • Options
    MysticroseMysticrose Posts: 4,688
    Nate is on ABC now
  • Options
    rkrkrkrkrkrk Posts: 7,908
    alex_ said:

    rkrkrk said:

    I still think Biden is value and it’s very much 50/50 at this. He needs, essentially, 2 of GA, MI, WI, PA and NC.

    Let’s put NC in the Trump column immediately because it’s very very likely he will get a narrow win there.

    The other states are harder to read:

    GA - looks like it will be a nail biter. There are enough votes out there for Biden to take the victory, but it is going to be very very close.

    PA - there are a lot of people suggesting the mail in ballots are going to bridge the gap. I think that looks a wee bit optimistic given the current Trump tally, but let’s charitably say this is a 60/40 percent chance for Trump.

    MI - genuinely up in the air from my reading of the situation.

    WI - again there is that gap that looks pretty sizeable but Milwaukee has yet to report and is expected to be very sizeable Dem. I think you give the edge to Biden here.

    All in all, it’s on a knife edge but I could see Biden doing it. His team appear to be projecting confidence while Trump’s look defensive, if that is any reading of the situation, but it’s difficult to know if that’s from a reading of the campaign team’s view of the situation or whether it’s just projection.

    Very crudely - I have put all the nytimes county results into a spreadsheet, then assumed the unreported votes go as their counties have currently gone. That doesn't include absentee ballots (I think).

    I thought when doing this I would see that Biden has lots of votes to come in. But actually it doesn't look that way.
    It looks like the gap widens in all 3 states? Maybe i've miscalculated somehow...
    Have you assumed that all votes to come mirror the votes cast so far? Whereas actually heavily Republican districts could have significant Biden votes outstanding, because Mail in.

    It's not like a normal election where mail in ballots are a small proportion, and the outstanding votes are cast on the same basis as those already counted. So you can just work it out by whether areas to come are strong Dem or strong Republican.
    Yes - that's what I've done. Thanks for giving me hope.
  • Options
    GIN1138GIN1138 Posts: 20,815
    edited November 2020
    That Befair graph looks just like REMAIN/LEAVE and Clinton/Trump?

    More dramatic movements in the middle of the night? :D
  • Options
    alex_alex_ Posts: 7,518
    Is Collins going to hold on in Maine?
  • Options
    I'm fairly confident Biden will win Wisconsin, so he gets to 254 ECVs.

    PA just looks out of reach to me. Georgia prob narrowly Trump.

    Which means it comes down to Michigan, and if Biden clinches it he probably wins 270 to 268.
  • Options
    not_on_firenot_on_fire Posts: 4,341

    I still think Biden is value and it’s very much 50/50 at this. He needs, essentially, 2 of GA, MI, WI, PA and NC.

    Let’s put NC in the Trump column immediately because it’s very very likely he will get a narrow win there.

    The other states are harder to read:

    GA - looks like it will be a nail biter. There are enough votes out there for Biden to take the victory, but it is going to be very very close.

    PA - there are a lot of people suggesting the mail in ballots are going to bridge the gap. I think that looks a wee bit optimistic given the current Trump tally, but let’s charitably say this is a 60/40 percent chance for Trump.

    MI - genuinely up in the air from my reading of the situation.

    WI - again there is that gap that looks pretty sizeable but Milwaukee has yet to report and is expected to be very sizeable Dem. I think you give the edge to Biden here.

    All in all, it’s on a knife edge but I could see Biden doing it. His team appear to be projecting confidence while Trump’s look defensive, if that is any reading of the situation, but it’s difficult to know if that’s from a reading of the campaign team’s view of the situation or whether it’s just projection.

    Isn’t there a route via Nevada where he picks up GA and WI and gets exactly 270?
    NV looks safe for Biden
  • Options
    Mal557Mal557 Posts: 662
    DavidL said:

    So to be clear from those charts the consensus view is that when the dust settles Trump has probably won this?

    Jeez.

    I would say so yes. For me the only way Biden will win is if he somehow sneaks GA. Looking at the numbers in the 3 rust belt states, and yes there are lots of postal votes still to be counted, but to me the gaps are too big for Biden to win more than 1 of them. So if he loses GA and it seems he may just fall short there , Trump wins.

    Well done to HYUFD and Mr Ed for both sticking to their Trump guns in the face of what was very negative polling for him. My own forecast was that Biden would win but only just so looks like I was also wrong, though I knew the landslide talk was nonsense.
  • Options
    FishingFishing Posts: 4,561
    Cyclefree said:



    One thing we can all agree on: the USA badly needs an Electoral Commission and some clear rules on postal voting and vote counting. The way they do it is all a mess.

    Would be unconstitutional to have a federal commission with any teeth as I understand it and expecting the states to clean up their acts is hopeless.

    There's certainly a case for a constitutional amendment for this, but, if you're opening that can of worms, the whole political system needs radical reform.

    On the whole, I'm very glad we have a Parliamentary system, which isn't perfect but at least allows the possibility of indecisive results leading to a coalition or a new election a few months later. Their Presidential system was set up in reaction to ours, but ironically has worn much worse.
  • Options
    IanB2IanB2 Posts: 47,274
    kjh said:

    isam said:

    IanB2 said:

    isam said:

    IanB2 said:

    isam said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Trafalgar must have done pretty well as far as pollsters are concerned.

    What is the next event that people can smugly take the mickey out of @HYUFD over his predictions, before he’s right and they’re wrong?
    The acid test will come when the non-conservative wins. If HY successfully predicts that, he will deserve kudos.
    Maybe Tralfagar’s way of coming to their conclusions is better than traditional opinion polling
    For sure. It is possible that HY is a shrewd judge of evidence and selected that, based on his experience, instinct and judgement, that he felt provided the best pointer of how things might go. And didn't bother to worry PB readers about the why and wherefore.

    However it's also possible that he tipped the conservative to win because he always tips the conservative and wants the conservative to win, and simply dredges up whatever data he can find to support a preconceived outcome.

    In the latter case, the surprise isn't HY's forecast, but the conservative win (if indeed that transpires).

    As I said a few days back, if you always cheer for Arsenal, and Arsenal wins, you're a fan, not a pundit.
    I guess the same goes for those lefties who wrote the threads that tipped Remain, said to lay Boris for the leadership, and backed Clinton and Biden?

    Biden might still win of course. He’s only the same price now as Trump was 24 hours ago
    That is not correct though is it (well it maybe for some)? It generally was because the evidence pointed to those results. If there is any criticism is not they were biased by their own bias but that they believed crap evidence. Should they have been aware the evidence was likely to have been crap or not?
    It's human nature to prefer the evidence that supports a favoured conclusion, and we're all susceptible, and likely all guilty. I wanted Biden to win and took the apparently building evidence pointing that way at face value. Had the evidence been pointing the other way, I expect I would have made more effort to cross-examine it.

    We are however living through a period when conservatives are usually the winners and social democrats usually the losers. So that someone who tends to predict the winner and someone who tends to predict the conservative look the exactly the same.
  • Options
    rkrkrk said:

    alex_ said:

    rkrkrk said:

    I still think Biden is value and it’s very much 50/50 at this. He needs, essentially, 2 of GA, MI, WI, PA and NC.

    Let’s put NC in the Trump column immediately because it’s very very likely he will get a narrow win there.

    The other states are harder to read:

    GA - looks like it will be a nail biter. There are enough votes out there for Biden to take the victory, but it is going to be very very close.

    PA - there are a lot of people suggesting the mail in ballots are going to bridge the gap. I think that looks a wee bit optimistic given the current Trump tally, but let’s charitably say this is a 60/40 percent chance for Trump.

    MI - genuinely up in the air from my reading of the situation.

    WI - again there is that gap that looks pretty sizeable but Milwaukee has yet to report and is expected to be very sizeable Dem. I think you give the edge to Biden here.

    All in all, it’s on a knife edge but I could see Biden doing it. His team appear to be projecting confidence while Trump’s look defensive, if that is any reading of the situation, but it’s difficult to know if that’s from a reading of the campaign team’s view of the situation or whether it’s just projection.

    Very crudely - I have put all the nytimes county results into a spreadsheet, then assumed the unreported votes go as their counties have currently gone. That doesn't include absentee ballots (I think).

    I thought when doing this I would see that Biden has lots of votes to come in. But actually it doesn't look that way.
    It looks like the gap widens in all 3 states? Maybe i've miscalculated somehow...
    Have you assumed that all votes to come mirror the votes cast so far? Whereas actually heavily Republican districts could have significant Biden votes outstanding, because Mail in.

    It's not like a normal election where mail in ballots are a small proportion, and the outstanding votes are cast on the same basis as those already counted. So you can just work it out by whether areas to come are strong Dem or strong Republican.
    Yes - that's what I've done. Thanks for giving me hope.
    What is it hope does to you again? :(
  • Options
    DavidLDavidL Posts: 51,268
    It looks like Trump is going to sweep the board in the midwest again winning Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. He looks like he is holding Georgia too. Is that not enough?
  • Options
    Biden now out to 3.35 - has any candidate ever won from those odds this late in the count ?
  • Options

    Andy_JS said:

    Decision Desk says >99% of votes are in in Wisconsin. Is this right?

    https://results.decisiondeskhq.com

    No, the correct figure is 83%

    https://twitter.com/benwikler/status/1323910181894397952
    I hope he’s right and won’t look like an idiot in 24 hours or so time.
  • Options
    YBarddCwscYBarddCwsc Posts: 7,172
    IanB2 said:

    kjh said:

    isam said:

    IanB2 said:

    isam said:

    IanB2 said:

    isam said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Trafalgar must have done pretty well as far as pollsters are concerned.

    What is the next event that people can smugly take the mickey out of @HYUFD over his predictions, before he’s right and they’re wrong?
    The acid test will come when the non-conservative wins. If HY successfully predicts that, he will deserve kudos.
    Maybe Tralfagar’s way of coming to their conclusions is better than traditional opinion polling
    For sure. It is possible that HY is a shrewd judge of evidence and selected that, based on his experience, instinct and judgement, that he felt provided the best pointer of how things might go. And didn't bother to worry PB readers about the why and wherefore.

    However it's also possible that he tipped the conservative to win because he always tips the conservative and wants the conservative to win, and simply dredges up whatever data he can find to support a preconceived outcome.

    In the latter case, the surprise isn't HY's forecast, but the conservative win (if indeed that transpires).

    As I said a few days back, if you always cheer for Arsenal, and Arsenal wins, you're a fan, not a pundit.
    I guess the same goes for those lefties who wrote the threads that tipped Remain, said to lay Boris for the leadership, and backed Clinton and Biden?

    Biden might still win of course. He’s only the same price now as Trump was 24 hours ago
    That is not correct though is it (well it maybe for some)? It generally was because the evidence pointed to those results. If there is any criticism is not they were biased by their own bias but that they believed crap evidence. Should they have been aware the evidence was likely to have been crap or not?
    It's human nature to prefer the evidence that supports a favoured conclusion, and we're all susceptible, and likely all guilty. I wanted Biden to win and took the apparently building evidence pointing that way at face value. Had the evidence been pointing the other way, I expect I would have made more effort to cross-examine it.

    We are however living through a period when conservatives are usually the winners and social democrats usually the losers. So that someone who tends to predict the winner and someone who tends to predict the conservative look the exactly the same.
    "The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool" (RPF)

    It applies just as much to the pandemic & is another reason why all the data should be made oublic.
  • Options
    AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 19,981

    I'm fairly confident Biden will win Wisconsin, so he gets to 254 ECVs.

    PA just looks out of reach to me. Georgia prob narrowly Trump.

    Which means it comes down to Michigan, and if Biden clinches it he probably wins 270 to 268.

    Are you putting NV and AZ in his column? (I kinda assuming they are both going blue, indeed some networks have called AZ)
  • Options
    alex_alex_ Posts: 7,518
    DavidL said:

    It looks like Trump is going to sweep the board in the midwest again winning Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. He looks like he is holding Georgia too. Is that not enough?

    Of course it is. But you're making massive assumptions about the split of votes to come. If it's all mail in ballots, and mail in ballots are, say, 2-1 Biden then it's nowhere near a sweep.
  • Options
    If Trump had handled covid only a fraction more competently, and its hard to see how he could have done worse, then he would certainly have been re-elected.
  • Options
    contrariancontrarian Posts: 5,818

    Biden now out to 3.35 - has any candidate ever won from those odds this late in the count ?

    Seems generous given the situation, its on a knife edge.
  • Options
    rkrkrkrkrkrk Posts: 7,908

    I'm fairly confident Biden will win Wisconsin, so he gets to 254 ECVs.

    PA just looks out of reach to me. Georgia prob narrowly Trump.

    Which means it comes down to Michigan, and if Biden clinches it he probably wins 270 to 268.

    I think Biden's best chance is Wisconsin, Georgia, Nevada.
  • Options
    DavidLDavidL Posts: 51,268

    I'm fairly confident Biden will win Wisconsin, so he gets to 254 ECVs.

    PA just looks out of reach to me. Georgia prob narrowly Trump.

    Which means it comes down to Michigan, and if Biden clinches it he probably wins 270 to 268.

    I think he's lost Wisconsin. There's just not enough votes left.
  • Options
    IanB2IanB2 Posts: 47,274

    I'm fairly confident Biden will win Wisconsin, so he gets to 254 ECVs.

    PA just looks out of reach to me. Georgia prob narrowly Trump.

    Which means it comes down to Michigan, and if Biden clinches it he probably wins 270 to 268.

    MI looks more challenging than WI
  • Options
    Mal557Mal557 Posts: 662
    DavidL said:

    It looks like Trump is going to sweep the board in the midwest again winning Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. He looks like he is holding Georgia too. Is that not enough?

    If he holds all those he's home comfortably yes.
  • Options
    QuincelQuincel Posts: 3,949
    DavidL said:

    It looks like Trump is going to sweep the board in the midwest again winning Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. He looks like he is holding Georgia too. Is that not enough?

    Why do you say it looks like that? Given the votes left out in Wisconsin, for example, it's very unclear. Milwaukee alone may have enough absentee votes with enough of a Biden lean to close the gap, or maybe not. And we don't know how other cities will skew with the remaining votes.
  • Options
    I've got a difficult decision to make.

    I can cash out now for an absolutely certain £1,600 haircut. Or I can stay in and win nearly £3k if Biden wins, but risk losing £3.4k if Trump wins.

    I'm not sure I'll be much less happy with losing £3.4k compared to £1.6k, and even more annoyed if Biden eventually clinches it by a whisker.

    What to do..?
  • Options
    isamisam Posts: 40,924
    kjh said:

    isam said:

    IanB2 said:

    isam said:

    IanB2 said:

    isam said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Trafalgar must have done pretty well as far as pollsters are concerned.

    What is the next event that people can smugly take the mickey out of @HYUFD over his predictions, before he’s right and they’re wrong?
    The acid test will come when the non-conservative wins. If HY successfully predicts that, he will deserve kudos.
    Maybe Tralfagar’s way of coming to their conclusions is better than traditional opinion polling
    For sure. It is possible that HY is a shrewd judge of evidence and selected that, based on his experience, instinct and judgement, that he felt provided the best pointer of how things might go. And didn't bother to worry PB readers about the why and wherefore.

    However it's also possible that he tipped the conservative to win because he always tips the conservative and wants the conservative to win, and simply dredges up whatever data he can find to support a preconceived outcome.

    In the latter case, the surprise isn't HY's forecast, but the conservative win (if indeed that transpires).

    As I said a few days back, if you always cheer for Arsenal, and Arsenal wins, you're a fan, not a pundit.
    I guess the same goes for those lefties who wrote the threads that tipped Remain, said to lay Boris for the leadership, and backed Clinton and Biden?

    Biden might still win of course. He’s only the same price now as Trump was 24 hours ago
    That is not correct though is it (well it maybe for some)? It generally was because the evidence pointed to those results. If there is any criticism is not they were biased by their own bias but that they believed crap evidence. Should they have been aware the evidence was likely to have been crap or not?
    I think they should have been aware. Polls aren’t gospel, they are articles of faith as much as whatever Trafalgar do is, just the crowd on here treat the former with reverence, and work backwards when they’re wrong to find things they got right.
  • Options
    alex_alex_ Posts: 7,518
    DavidL said:

    I'm fairly confident Biden will win Wisconsin, so he gets to 254 ECVs.

    PA just looks out of reach to me. Georgia prob narrowly Trump.

    Which means it comes down to Michigan, and if Biden clinches it he probably wins 270 to 268.

    I think he's lost Wisconsin. There's just not enough votes left.
    Why not? 3.6% ahead with 17% to come. That means he just needs around 65% of outstanding votes. Which is certainly possible.
  • Options
    IanB2IanB2 Posts: 47,274

    If Trump had handled covid only a fraction more competently, and its hard to see how he could have done worse, then he would certainly have been re-elected.

    It is quite shocking how badly he handled the virus, but is on the verge of re-election.

    Then again, the UK Tories are still holding up in the polls, mostly.

    In the US, the tendency for presidents to get their second term appears a pretty strong pull on voters.
  • Options
    Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 26,592

    If Trump had handled covid only a fraction more competently, and its hard to see how he could have done worse, then he would certainly have been re-elected.

    Personally I don't think Covid made much difference to the election result.
  • Options
    DavidLDavidL Posts: 51,268
    Mal557 said:

    DavidL said:

    It looks like Trump is going to sweep the board in the midwest again winning Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. He looks like he is holding Georgia too. Is that not enough?

    If he holds all those he's home comfortably yes.
    My current guess is Trump 290, Biden 248.
  • Options
    MysticroseMysticrose Posts: 4,688

    I've got a difficult decision to make.

    I can cash out now for an absolutely certain £1,600 haircut. Or I can stay in and win nearly £3k if Biden wins, but risk losing £3.4k if Trump wins.

    I'm not sure I'll be much less happy with losing £3.4k compared to £1.6k, and even more annoyed if Biden eventually clinches it by a whisker.

    What to do..?

    DavidL said:

    I'm fairly confident Biden will win Wisconsin, so he gets to 254 ECVs.

    PA just looks out of reach to me. Georgia prob narrowly Trump.

    Which means it comes down to Michigan, and if Biden clinches it he probably wins 270 to 268.

    I think he's lost Wisconsin. There's just not enough votes left.
    That's totally untrue. The Democratic chair is currently confident in Wisconsin.
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    Biden now out to 3.35 - has any candidate ever won from those odds this late in the count ?

    Seems generous given the situation, its on a knife edge.
    I've topped up my Biden bet.
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    isamisam Posts: 40,924

    I've got a difficult decision to make.

    I can cash out now for an absolutely certain £1,600 haircut. Or I can stay in and win nearly £3k if Biden wins, but risk losing £3.4k if Trump wins.

    I'm not sure I'll be much less happy with losing £3.4k compared to £1.6k, and even more annoyed if Biden eventually clinches it by a whisker.

    What to do..?

    Just lay a little of Biden but still have him as a winner if you’re uncomfortable with —3.4? You don’t have to either leave it or cash out
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    Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 26,592
    edited November 2020
    edit
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    GIN1138GIN1138 Posts: 20,815
    edited November 2020
    Mal557 said:

    DavidL said:

    So to be clear from those charts the consensus view is that when the dust settles Trump has probably won this?

    Jeez.

    I would say so yes. For me the only way Biden will win is if he somehow sneaks GA. Looking at the numbers in the 3 rust belt states, and yes there are lots of postal votes still to be counted, but to me the gaps are too big for Biden to win more than 1 of them. So if he loses GA and it seems he may just fall short there , Trump wins.

    Well done to HYUFD and Mr Ed for both sticking to their Trump guns in the face of what was very negative polling for him. My own forecast was that Biden would win but only just so looks like I was also wrong, though I knew the landslide talk was nonsense.
    I'm infrequent on here at the moment but I've always said I can't see Sleepy Joe being POTUS and I went on record to say Crazy Nancy's shenanigans a couple of weeks ago ware a bad omen for the Dems ;)
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    alex_alex_ Posts: 7,518
    edited November 2020
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    MysticroseMysticrose Posts: 4,688
    DavidL said:

    It looks like Trump is going to sweep the board in the midwest again winning Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. He looks like he is holding Georgia too. Is that not enough?

    This is nonsense.

    He might do those things but you have no evidence for it. Nor do I. Nor do the news channels.

    Currently it's roughly 60:40 Biden gets to win but it's very tight.
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    I've got a difficult decision to make.

    I can cash out now for an absolutely certain £1,600 haircut. Or I can stay in and win nearly £3k if Biden wins, but risk losing £3.4k if Trump wins.

    I'm not sure I'll be much less happy with losing £3.4k compared to £1.6k, and even more annoyed if Biden eventually clinches it by a whisker.

    What to do..?

    Minimax regret decision.
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    NerysHughesNerysHughes Posts: 3,347
    IanB2 said:

    If Trump had handled covid only a fraction more competently, and its hard to see how he could have done worse, then he would certainly have been re-elected.

    It is quite shocking how badly he handled the virus, but is on the verge of re-election.

    Then again, the UK Tories are still holding up in the polls, mostly.

    In the US, the tendency for presidents to get their second term appears a pretty strong pull on voters.
    To win elections in this internet age you need a big personality. Trump is completely mad but he is not boring, Biden is.
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    Mal557Mal557 Posts: 662
    Any more views on GA? I can see Biden winning in WI, but losing PA and MI now. Which means he needs GA. I saw earlier posts suggesting its 50/50 but is that right? Or wishful thinking and another case of very close but no cigar like several other states.
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    alex_ said:

    DavidL said:

    I'm fairly confident Biden will win Wisconsin, so he gets to 254 ECVs.

    PA just looks out of reach to me. Georgia prob narrowly Trump.

    Which means it comes down to Michigan, and if Biden clinches it he probably wins 270 to 268.

    I think he's lost Wisconsin. There's just not enough votes left.
    Why not? 3.6% ahead with 17% to come. That means he just needs around 65% of outstanding votes. Which is certainly possible.
    Yes I think WI is provably Biden’s best chance. If he doesn’t get GA though, it’s not enough. He’ll need Michigan too. I can’t really say what the state of the race is there, it looks a bit confused.

    I don’t think he’s out of this though. I think the consensus on here seems to be forming around a second Trump term but I just don’t think we’ve got the necessary information for that yet.
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    SandyRentoolSandyRentool Posts: 20,605
    Well let's hope that Biden hasn't plagiarised Neil Kinnock's 1992 result.

    I got up at 5:20 (thanks to my bladder), checked the TV, groaned and returned to bed.
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    LostPasswordLostPassword Posts: 15,229

    Clearly a significant proportion of Americans don't want to live in a democracy. They want a monarchy - peopled by reality TV stars.

    Jefferson and co must be turning in their graves. I suppose you can say their experiment worked for a couple of hundred years.

    Nah, we can't explain this away like that.

    If Trump wins it's because Americans thought he'd make the better President for them. We need to understand why, and not grab fig leaves.
    Yes. We need honest answers not easy answers.

    Although it does look like the voters, at least enough of them in the right places, prefer easy answers to honest answers.
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    AlistairAlistair Posts: 23,670

    Biden now out to 3.35 - has any candidate ever won from those odds this late in the count ?

    I'm trying to work out if the gigantic gap in Penn is bridgeable by late reporting precincts and postals.
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    tlg86tlg86 Posts: 25,190
    edited November 2020
    isam said:

    IanB2 said:

    isam said:

    IanB2 said:

    isam said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Trafalgar must have done pretty well as far as pollsters are concerned.

    What is the next event that people can smugly take the mickey out of @HYUFD over his predictions, before he’s right and they’re wrong?
    The acid test will come when the non-conservative wins. If HY successfully predicts that, he will deserve kudos.
    Maybe Tralfagar’s way of coming to their conclusions is better than traditional opinion polling
    For sure. It is possible that HY is a shrewd judge of evidence and selected that, based on his experience, instinct and judgement, that he felt provided the best pointer of how things might go. And didn't bother to worry PB readers about the why and wherefore.

    However it's also possible that he tipped the conservative to win because he always tips the conservative and wants the conservative to win, and simply dredges up whatever data he can find to support a preconceived outcome.

    In the latter case, the surprise isn't HY's forecast, but the conservative win (if indeed that transpires).

    As I said a few days back, if you always cheer for Arsenal, and Arsenal wins, you're a fan, not a pundit.
    I guess the same goes for those lefties who wrote the threads that tipped Remain, said to lay Boris for the leadership, and backed Clinton and Biden?

    Biden might still win of course. He’s only the same price now as Trump was 24 hours ago
    As much as I love this site, I don't take much notice of what people think will happen because they are mostly biased to what they want to happen. There aren't many people who I trust to be objective, particularly in terms of this election. @Richard_Nabavi suggested that the figures coming out of from Florida yesterday weren't great for Biden, and that made me think that this was going to be close. I trust him to be objective. Most people on here, unfortunately, aren't.
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    AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 19,981
    Mal557 said:

    Any more views on GA? I can see Biden winning in WI, but losing PA and MI now. Which means he needs GA. I saw earlier posts suggesting its 50/50 but is that right? Or wishful thinking and another case of very close but no cigar like several other states.

    NYT needles have it as a 64% shot for Biden.
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    DavidLDavidL Posts: 51,268

    DavidL said:

    It looks like Trump is going to sweep the board in the midwest again winning Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. He looks like he is holding Georgia too. Is that not enough?

    This is nonsense.

    He might do those things but you have no evidence for it. Nor do I. Nor do the news channels.

    Currently it's roughly 60:40 Biden gets to win but it's very tight.
    The evidence is the votes cast and the votes outstanding. The problem I see is that even if Biden comes from behind in 1 of these its not enough. Trump has a margin of comfort right now.
This discussion has been closed.