METHODOLOGY

The POLITICO Battleground States polling average is a calculation of the most recent public polling in 11 swing states: Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin. Updated daily, the average will provide estimates of the candidates’ standing by from overall and state-level perspectives.

The averages for each state include the five most-recent reliable public polls, as determined by POLITICO. This excludes polls conducted entirely over landline phones (which don’t survey the nearly half of Americans who only own a cell phone), but includes surveys conducted by partisan pollsters. For each survey, if the poll includes ballot tests both including and excluding third-party candidates, the data used is whichever matchup is asked first in the available script.

The overall Battleground States average includes the five most recent polls from each state, weighted according to that state’s representation in the Electoral College. A poll from Florida (29 electoral votes) would be weighted 7.25 times more than a poll from New Hampshire (4 electoral votes), for example.