NC Insider Advantage Poll: Obama and Hillary in Statistical Tie
A new Insider Advantage poll from North Carolina was released this afternoon. It was taken yesterday and shows Hillary and Barack Obama in a statistical dead heat: Obama 48%, Hillary 45%. Undecided: 7%.
Actual poll results are here.
InsiderAdvantage’s Matt Towery: “Really interesting dynamics at play here. Clinton has increased her lead among white voters to 58% - very close to the 60% plus level needed to pull off a victory. She now leads among those who say they are Democrats but has started to trail among Unaffiliated voters, who are allowed to participate in Tuesday’s election. Additionally, African-American voters are not quite as solid with Obama as they have been, at least based on previous exit polls. Clinton has remained in the upper teens (17%) of African-American support in our recent surveys. African-American turnout will be the key to this race. Our poll is based on a turnout model of 35% African-American vote. Anything under that number could give Clinton a shocking upset. But Indiana has become a true horserace that should concern the Clinton camp."
Here are the most recent numbers for registered North Carolina voters as of May 3, broken down by party, race and sex.
Feel free to check my math, it's not my best subject, and to suggest better assumptions than those I make below.
First, I'm adding Democrats in with Independents, since that is the greatest number that can vote in the Democratic primary. It's 3,868,446 voters.
Second, since the state chart doesn't break the ethnic vote down by party, I'm making the assumption that the African American voters are Democrats or Independents. Sure, there are some who are Republican, but I'd bet it's a statistically irrelevant number.
Third, I assume most African American voters are voting for Obama, making a comparison between the percentage of African American voters in each county and the number of Democrats and Independents in each county a relevant factor to consider.
Next, I look at five counties with close to or more than 100,000 Democrats. I add the Democrats and the Independents together. I divide the number of African American voters in each of these counties by the number of registered Democrats and Independents to come up with a percentage.
Here's what I come up with:
- Cumberland, 137,562; 52% AA
- Durham, 142,451; 46% AA
- Guilford, 225,636; 44% AA
- Mecklenberg, 391,422; 42% AA
- Wake, 363,670; 29% AA
So, two questions. Is the poll's turnout model of 35% AA voters under-representing them?
Second, even if Hillary gets 60% of the white vote, are there enough white voters in the N.C. Democratic primary for her to get close to a tie?
I think we should avoid setting too high an expectation for Hillary in North Carolina. If she can lower Obama's win to single digits there, that's a big deal.
P.S. If this turns out to be a totally useless comparison, I'll be deleting it. Like I said, math isn't my best subject and I never took statistics.
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