In this issue of Math in the News, we look at statistics for the recent Presidential election. For more math resources go to www.media4math.com.

1. Math in the News
The election is over, and
Barack Obama won. Let’s look
back and see who voted for
whom and how the polls did in
predicting the winners and
losers.
Here’s the final electoral map.
How many states did Mitt
Romney win? How many states
did Barack Obama win?
The Butterfly Migration
Why did Barack Obama win the
election?
Source:
http://elections.huffingtonpost.com/pollster/2012

2. Math in the News
Many people took
polls of voters. They
were trying to
predict who would
win the election.
Click on the
interactive tool to
track what the polls
said throughout the
election season.
http://elections.huffingtonpost.com
/pollster/2012-general-election-
romney-vs-obama

3. Math in the News
How does polling work?
Experts try to reach an
evenly matched sample
not skewed to one party
or another. They
combine data from many
sources into computer
models to make their
best estimate.
Check out this chart.
How did the pollsters
do?
Source:
http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.
com/2012/11/10/which-polls-fared-
best-and-worst-in-the-2012-
presidential-race/#more-37396

4. Math in the News
You may have heard
that more women
voted for President
Obama than for
Governor Romney
Look at this graph.
What does it say
about how women
voted?
Source:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-c-
wilson/the-elephant-in-the-
exit_b_2094354.html?
utm_hp_ref=@pollster

5. Math in the News
Which candidate did young people vote
for? What about older people? Do you
remember? If not, make a prediction and
find out what happened on the next slide.

6. Math in the News
How did you do? Were your predictions
correct?
As you’ve seen, pollsters made predictions,
too. Sometimes they ’re right, but not always.
Polling is not an exact science.