The upcoming election is becoming more interesting and dynamic every day. While the candidates contest, secure, or historically change battleground states, we have been updating datasets of the latest state by state polls to Finder!. Taking a look at these polls as they change over time, we can get an understanding as to how the public and the campaigns are interacting and how states are reacting to important events, such as the conventions, vice-presidential choices, the debates, and the economic crisis.

The image below shows the candidates’ lead in the polls from the end of August till now. It is interesting to watch some battleground states, such as Montana and Pennsylvania, become solidified while other contested states such as Ohio, North Carolina, and Florida change back and forth between candidates.

Check out this interactive map showing the latest changes in U.S. Election polls by state. The date on each map represents the date that the polls were updated and not necessarily the date of the polls for each state.

To see how this election map compares to 2004, here is a map of the state won by Bush and Kerry. You can see that many of the states that bush won are either contested or are supporting Obama in this election.

Also it’s not necessarily the number of states won but number of electoral votes. This map shows the states according to their electoral votes. Many of the contested states are the ones with more votes at stake.

It is important to remember, when looking at polls, that they are often inaccurate and sometimes even bias. Many times, misleading polls actually have the potential to sway the popular opinion of a candidate and can have an unfair effect on the outcome of an election.

The poll maps were made from datasets in Finder! collected from USA Election Polls, who collect the latest state by state poll results and post them on their website.

Those datasets can be found at the following links.

• October 20th Election Polls
• October 14th Election Polls
• October 2nd Election Polls
• August 28th Election Polls

The dataset for the election of 2004 can be found here and the electoral votes data can be found in any of the poll datasets. The map of the polls can be found here, the map of the 2004 results can be found here and the electoral votes map here.

States are polled by different polling companies and polls take place over different time periods but are updated when the newest ones are released. Battleground states are usually the most frequently polled.

Polling sources include Rasmussen Reports, Survey USA, NBC Mason Dixon, Insider Advantage, American Research Group and more.

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