Slate Article: Election Scorecard

Election Scorecard
Where the midterm elections stand today.
By Mark Blumenthal and Charles Franklin
Updated Friday, Sept. 8, 2006, at 7:03 PM ET

Which party would control the U.S. Senate if the election were held today? The numbers below show the leaders based on averages of the most recent polls in each state. The "momentum shift" meter indicates statistically meaningful trends in recent polls of competitive races. How did we get these numbers and what do they mean?
Scoreboard for Dem and Repub candidates so far. Good graphics
http://www.slate.com/id/2148600


Some caution may be in order. There have been no conventional news-media polls since July, and many pollsters question Rasmussen's use of recorded voices to read poll questions. But as William Saletan observed after the 2004 elections, that approach beat many competitors who used more traditional methods.

Mark Blumenthal is a Democratic pollster and the editor and publisher of Pollster.com , the new home of his blog MysteryPollster.

Charles Franklin is a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin, author of the blog Political Arithmetik, and a co-developer and contributor to Pollster.com. For comments and questions, please write to electionscorecard@gmail.com .

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