To follow 2026 midterm polls on your phone, you have three kinds of tools: a dedicated poll app, the polling pages of news and data sites, and prediction-market apps. If you have an iPhone and want every published Senate, governor and generic-ballot poll grouped by race with an average attached, Election Tracker is built for that job. If you want a forecast model or pollster grades, a data site like Silver Bulletin or The New York Times suits you better, and you’ll mostly read it in a browser.
Whichever you pick, a reliable tracker tells you where every number came from, when it was collected and how it was combined. The general election is November 3, 2026, and most primaries are over. Below are the main options, then a checklist you can run on any tracker, ours included.
What kind of election tracker do you need? #
“Election tracker” covers four different products, and plenty of people install the wrong one.
| Type | What it shows | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Polling tracker | Individual polls and averages by race | Seeing where races stand now |
| Forecast model | Win probabilities built from polls plus other data | “Who’s likely to win?” |
| Market tracker | Prediction market prices | Fast reaction to news, trader sentiment |
| Results tracker | Vote counts and race calls | Election night and the days after |
A polling app won’t give you vote counts on November 3, and a results page won’t tell you much in September. Decide which question you’re asking first. If election night is what you’re planning for, see our guide to getting live election results on your phone.
Where did FiveThirtyEight go? #
For years FiveThirtyEight was the default answer to “where do I check the polls?” It no longer exists. ABC News shut 538 down in March 2025, and its averages and pollster ratings stopped updating. Pollster ratings now come mainly from Silver Bulletin, run by 538’s founder Nate Silver, and averages are spread across several outlets.
The best election poll apps and sites compared #
| Tool | Best for | Where you use it | Cost | Main limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Election Tracker | Race-by-race polls with averages, approval, market sentiment | iPhone app | Free with ads; one-time purchase removes ads | No forecast, results or maps; House coverage is the generic ballot |
| Silver Bulletin | Pollster grades and model-driven analysis | Web newsletter | Some content is for paid subscribers | Not designed as a phone dashboard |
| The New York Times | Approval and selected race averages, NYT/Siena polls | Web and NYT app | Usually needs a subscription | Covers the races it chooses |
| RealClearPolling | A fast list of recent polls with a simple average | Web | Free with ads | Simple average with few adjustments |
| Decision Desk HQ | Vote counts and race calls | Web | Free to browse | Built around results more than polls |
| Polymarket, Kalshi | What traders are pricing in | Trading apps and web | Free to view; trading uses real money | Prices are sentiment, not polls |
Election Tracker: best for checking races on an iPhone #
Election Tracker has four tabs: polls, approval, markets and settings. The polls tab splits into Senate, House, Governor and 2028 Primary. Every race with polling gets a card showing its 30-day average, then the individual polls, each with pollster, sample size, population and field dates. The average follows three published rules: repeat polls from the same pollster in a race collapse to its strongest sample, newer polls count more, and a candidate must appear in enough polls before being averaged at all.
The approval screen shows approve, disapprove and net approval as a 7-day average of every published poll, with a 30- or 90-day chart. A read-only Market Sentiment tab shows Polymarket prices with 24-hour moves, under a disclaimer that they’re trader sentiment, not forecasts. You can pin the races you follow, filter by state or candidate name, and share any average as text with its poll count and dates.
Polls and approval come from VoteHub, with the New York Times approval average as a fallback, and each screen names its source and when it last refreshed. Polls are re-checked every 30 minutes, approval hourly and markets every 15 minutes. If a source can’t be reached, the last good data stays on screen, labeled as older.
Who it’s wrong for: Android users (it’s iPhone only), anyone who wants a win-probability forecast or a map, and anyone looking for polls of individual House districts. Its House tab covers the generic congressional ballot, not district races. It doesn’t show vote counts on election night either.
Silver Bulletin: best for pollster grades and models #
Nate Silver’s newsletter publishes letter-grade pollster ratings and model-based analysis. If you want to know whether a pollster’s grade justifies its headline, start here. It’s a reading experience, not a quick dashboard, and some of it sits behind a paid subscription.
The New York Times: best if you already subscribe #
The Times publishes a presidential approval average and polling averages for races it covers, and it co-sponsors the NYT/Siena poll, one of the highest-rated pollsters in Silver Bulletin’s ratings. Expect a paywall after a few articles.
RealClearPolling: best for a fast list of the latest polls #
RealClearPolling lists recent polls for major races and takes a straight average of the most recent ones. It’s quick and free. Because it applies few adjustments, one or two outliers can move its average more than they’d move a weighted one.
Decision Desk HQ: best when results start coming in #
Decision Desk HQ runs its own vote tabulation and race calls, which many outlets license, and its site has a polls section too. Its real strength is election night. If what you want is vote counts and race calls on November 3, a results service like this one, or the AP data most news apps use, is the right tool.
Prediction market apps: a different kind of number #
Polymarket and Kalshi let people trade contracts on outcomes, and their prices move within minutes of news. That speed is useful, but a price isn’t a poll. It reflects what traders with money at stake expect, which can be thin or skewed in low-volume markets. Our comparison of PredictIt, Polymarket and Kalshi covers how each works and where each is available.
How do you tell if an election tracker is reliable? #
Run these nine checks on any app or site before you trust its numbers.
- Every number names its source. You should see which pollster, market or vote-counting source produced a figure, on the same screen as the number. “Data from multiple sources” with no specifics is a red flag.
- Polls show their field dates. A poll finished yesterday reads very differently from one taken three weeks ago. Look for when interviews happened, not just when the poll was released.
- Sample size and population are listed. Look for “n=” and a label: adults (A), registered voters (RV) or likely voters (LV). In a midterm, RV and LV results for the same race can differ by several points, because many registered voters skip midterms.
- The averaging method is written down. Any average decides which polls count, how long they stay in, whether recent polls weigh more and how a pollster that publishes constantly is handled. A black-box average might still be good, but you’re taking it on trust.
- It says when it last updated. “Real-time” should come with a timestamp. When a source is down or you’re offline, the tracker should say it’s showing older data rather than passing stale numbers off as current.
- Polls, forecasts and markets are kept apart. A 62% market price and a 62% poll share mean completely different things. Market prices should be labeled as trader sentiment, not vote share.
- One outlier can’t move the headline. If the headline number jumps 5 points because of a single release, the average isn’t doing its job. Good averages move gradually and let you see which poll caused a change.
- It covers the races you care about. Coverage follows what pollsters publish. Competitive Senate and governor races get plenty of polls; most House districts get few or none. A confident “average” built on one district poll is overselling.
- The presentation is neutral. Conventional party colors are fine. Editorial language (“surging,” “collapsing”), selective poll inclusion, or partisan commentary mixed in with the data is not.
Red flags to walk away from #
- Sources named only on an “About” page, or not at all
- Polls without dates or sample sizes
- Numbers with no update time
- Market prices described as “odds of winning” with no disclaimer, or shown as if they were polls
- A “momentum” meter with no explanation of how it’s computed
- An account or broad permissions required for an app that only displays public data
- Basic numbers behind a paywall when they’re free elsewhere
How real-time does a polling tracker need to be? #
Less than people think. Even in October of an election year, pollsters release a handful of surveys a day across all races, and an average built from weeks of polls moves slowly. An app that checks for new polls every half hour is about as current as polling gets. Anything that moves minute to minute is market data, not polls, and most of those minute-to-minute moves are noise. What matters is that the tracker is honest about freshness, not that it refreshes every second.
Why do different apps show different averages for the same race? #
Every average makes choices, and small choices move the number by a point or two, especially in races with few polls:
- Which polls count. Some averages drop low-rated or partisan-sponsored polls; others include everything published.
- How repeat polls are treated. If one firm polls a race weekly, a plain average lets that firm dominate. Election Tracker counts each pollster once per race within its 30-day window.
- How fast old polls fade. A 14-day window reacts faster than a 30-day window, and it’s also noisier.
- Adjustments. Model-based averages may shift each pollster for its known lean, called its house effect, or prefer likely-voter results.
Neither approach is wrong. What matters is that the method is written down so you can tell why two numbers differ. Our beginner’s guide to polling averages walks through the math.
Which one should you use? #
- You want a quick look at your races between other things: a dedicated app. Pin three or four races and check the average and the date of the newest poll.
- You want to argue about methodology: a data site with pollster grades and a written model.
- You want vote counts on election night: a results service or a network’s live page.
- You want the market’s view: read the prices, but treat them as sentiment and compare them with the polling average before drawing conclusions.
For many people the answer is two tools: a phone app for daily checks and one data site for deeper reading.
Frequently asked questions #
Is there a free app to track election polls? #
Yes. Election Tracker is free with a banner ad, and a one-time purchase removes the ads. Nothing in the app sits behind a paywall. RealClearPolling and several other sites are free on the web, while outlets like The New York Times usually need a subscription.
What is the most accurate election tracker? #
No tracker is accurate in the sense of predicting results. Polling trackers describe current opinion, and forecasts estimate probabilities. The most trustworthy ones are open about sources, dates and methods, and comparing two transparent trackers tells you more than trusting any single one.
Can I track individual House races on a poll app? #
Only partly. Individual House districts are polled rarely, so most trackers focus on the generic congressional ballot, which asks which party voters prefer for Congress. Election Tracker’s House tab is the generic ballot. For district-level ratings and the occasional district poll, use race-rating sites and our guide to tracking House races in 2026.
Where can I get live election results on election night? #
From a news app or site that uses Associated Press data, a results service such as Decision Desk HQ, or your state’s election office website for official counts. Polling apps, Election Tracker included, don’t show vote counts. Close races, especially in states that count mail ballots after Election Day, can take days to call.
Is Election Tracker available on Android? #
No. Election Tracker is available only on iPhone through the App Store. Android users can follow averages on the web through the sites in the table above.