[Aevery_Freeman]

The numbers of votes cast is known and "reliable" and a fair indication of likely voters providing a base percentage - any deviation from this percentage involves a supposition. It also eliminates the independent vote just as opening the box eliminated the ambiguity of a live or dead Shrodinger's cat.

I also understand that a sample of 1000 yields an uncertainty of +/- 3.16% but that does not change the fact that Others intentionally slant their samples, but the sleaze in some polling is not the only reason for these results."

Maybe I'm paranoid but I sometimes feel the media attempts to manipulate rather than report.

[Pollster1]

"Others intentionally slant their samples, but the sleaze in some polling is not the only reason for these results."

I should have been more precise in my wording. There are pollsters who intentionally slant their results - through wording bias, non-random samples, or other options. There are also honest pollsters. Even these honest pollsters show a rough tie in the swing states: Colorado, Florida, Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Virginia. And, yes, the media manipulate instead of reporting. As one journalist told me, "by selecting which facts to report or even lying when necessary, I can tell a higher truth through the story." [Okay, two decades later, that's not a literal quote, but it's at least a close paraphrase with the same tone as the original statement.]