In the Ford thread there's been talk about can Ford compete if he comes clean. There was a poorly written
article saying that 32% would vote consider to vote for Ford and compare it to Chow 33%
Nate Silver (guy who predicted that last couple of American elections and author signal and the noise) said numbers could be real but analysis is easy to BS. This is a perfect example of that.
They took Ford absolute ceiling (people who would consider voting for him) at 32%. So that 32% consists of undecided and soft supporters of other candidates and compare it to Chow 5-person percentage 33% and calling it close. But the thing is Chow 33% will obviously go up as her undecided and soft supporter (Stintz/Soknacki strategy voters) would definitely bump her number up. But they didn't take that into consideration.
That is how people get really tricked into thinking a race is close. Silver said Obama would win the electoral vote easily in this two elections. But the writers/pundits wanting to make it a "close race" will look at swing states and flip stat to the lesser vote candidate (McCain/Romney) to make it seem more even than it actually is. The odds of that happening is very slim. Just like the odds of Chow not getting any undecided/soft supporters and Ford getting it all is pretty slim