I feel like it’s worse than meaningless. It distorts the coverage—newspapers start covering the election as if it were sport, and as the number goes up or down,

I feel like it’s worse than meaningless. It distorts the coverage—newspapers start covering the election as if it were sport, and as the number goes up or down, it is treated as one side winning or losing, with substantive coverage falling by the wayside. Political actors act differently because of how they think it will make the number move, instead of what they think is best for the country. And it's so far out from the election that the number in its current state is not very meaningful—if anything it convinces people, incorrectly, that it is a "reality", when the only real measure is who will show up to vote on election day.