Gallup's New 'Likely Voter' Category: Likely to Find More Obama Voters

Just in time for the final weeks of the presidential election campaign, Gallup has added a nuance to its polling presentations.

Instead of merely presenting "registered" and "likely" voters, the polling firm has decided to present a third category: an "expanded" version of likely voters. This third category is in addition to its "traditional" likely-voter presentation.

My look at Gallup's October 12-14 results indicates that the "expanded" version is indeed likely -- likely to find Obama voters, and that's about it.

First, here's the organization's explanation of the new category:

Here is the October 12-14 presentation of the three categories:

To get to the new "expanded" version from the original, more time-tested "traditional" result, here is roughly what the breakdown between Obama, McCain, and others has to be (the "expanded" column was decreased by 0.5% each for McCain and Obama so that the total percentages would add up to 100%):

Yeah, right. 86% - 9% of the 159 new "expanded" likely voters go to Obama. How convenient.

This doesn't even pass the stench test, let alone the smell test.

Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.