What's with this map?

[equern]

Indiana and WV get one poll, and they show an improbable, though indicative of -1- poll in color.  Yet SC gets 1 poll and remains gray.

NC shows 1 D, 1 tie, and 1 R lead and shows Baby Blue, WA has all kinds of polls with a couple of ties and remains Gray.  KY too.

Can anyone clean up this map?  Also...while I suppose it's more fair to insist that a candidate/party win all latest polls to show a color, shouldn't there be some rule about states with only one poll?

EthanQ

[Padfoot]

The polls map is generated by taking the average spread for the latest three polls.  It is then rated on the following scale:

Strong: 10+
Lean: 5-10%
Slight: 2-5%

In addition, the same candidate must win all three polls averaged in order to be considered in the slight category.  Otherwise it is rated as a tossup.  However, if the average spread falls in the lean or strong category then it doesn't matter if the other candidate won one of the three polls.

IN and WV are considered lean states because the only poll shows the Democrat winning by 5% or more.  SC is a tossup because the spread is only D+1 therefore it is too small to even be considered slight.

I'm not sure what numbers you are looking at for NC because all 3 that I see show the Republican winning with an average of R+3 which means the map is correct in labeling it slight.   Perhaps you accidentally clicked Virginia which has an R+1.3 average and is thus a tossup.  In Washington the average is D+4.6 but because one of the latest three polls is a tie, the state is rated as a tossup.  In Kentucky the average is 0 so it is also correctly labeled as a tossup.

Both the above scale and the rule I described are on the map.  Usually it helps to read those sorts of things before accusing the map of being messy or inaccurate.