Results of a new poll conducted by Boston Globe/Suffolk were circulated on November 7. The poll asked participants from Massachusetts for whom they will vote: Republican Donald Trump or Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Boston Globe/Suffolk poll results
According to the results, 57.0% of interviewees would give their vote to former First Lady Hillary Clinton, while 25.0% intend to vote for billionaire Donald Trump.
The poll was conducted from October 24 to October 26. A total of 500 likely voters responded. Taking into account the poll's sampling error of +/-4.4 percentage points, the difference in voter support is statistically significant.
Putting the results in context
In general, however, one should not have too much faith in the results of single polls, as they often incorporate large errors. Rather, one should check how a poll's results compare to benchmark forecasts.
In order to make the results comparable to benchmark forecasts, one can translate them into shares of the two-party vote. This yields figures of 69.5% for Clinton and 30.5% for Trump.
Results in comparison to other polls
If we look at an average of Massachusetts polls, Clinton's two-party vote share is currently at 67.5%. This value is 2 percentage points lower than her corresponding numbers in the Boston Globe/Suffolk poll. This margin is within the poll's margin of error, which suggests that the poll is not an outlier.
Results compared to the combined PollyVote forecast
The most recent PollyVote predicts Clinton to gain 65.2% of the two-party vote in Massachusetts. Hence, the PollyVote forecast is 4.3 points below her polling numbers. The PollyVote forecast is therefore in line with the poll's error margin.