What is a "5 point lead"? How is it calculated?

[Kablooie]

I understand percentages such as A has a 45% chance of winning but I don't get the point system.

Is up 5 points fair or great?

How high can they go? 100 points?

[One Black Sheep]

1. 5 points is pretty tight

The margin of error can be 2 or 3 points sometimes, that is what I have seen. Subtract that from 5 points, and that means its very close.

Yea, a candidate A could theoretically be winning over candidate B by 100 percentage points, so, let's say a poll was done with ten people, and they all voted for candidate A, then that candidate would be winning 100% - 0%

[leftynyc]

4. That same margin of error

could mean the candidate is up 7 or 8 rather than 5. MOE works both ways.

[ManiacJoe]

2. point = percentage point = percent

[Cracklin Charlie]

3. Good question.

I have a follow up question:

How does each percentage point translate into actual votes?

Does each point represent a certain number of votes?

[leftynyc]

5. That would depend on the

total number of voters which we have no way of knowing until after the election.

[yardwork]

6. If Hillary wins every state by 50.1% it will be a land slide.

Remember that it's the states that count. Winner take all, state by state.