State of the Race: A Big Week in News, but a Quiet One in Polling

With four weeks to go until the election, the race for the White House is as tight as it’s been for the last two weeks.

The New York Times polling average shows Kamala Harris and Donald J. Trump essentially tied across the seven battleground states considered likeliest to decide the presidency, with neither ahead by enough to count as even a modest favorite.

In state after state, the average is essentially unchanged after a newsy week that included the vice-presidential debate, the new jobs report and Israel’s assassination of Hezbollah’s leader.

In today’s polarized country, it’s not necessarily surprising when the news doesn’t affect the numbers. This week, though, there was a different reason the polls didn’t seem to budge at all: There just weren’t many of them.

Even if these events did affect the race, there probably hasn’t been an opportunity for the polls to show it.