The usual procedure for developing linear models to predict any kind of target variable is to identify a subset of
most important predictors and to estimateweights that provide the best possible solution for a given sample. The
resulting “optimally” weighted linear composite is then used when predicting new data. This approach is useful
in situations with large and reliable datasets and fewpredictor variables. However, a large body of analytical and
empirical evidence since the 1970s shows that such optimal variable weights are of little, if any, value in situationswith
small and noisy datasets and a large number of predictor variables. In such situations,which are common
for social science problems, including all relevant variables is more important than their weighting. These
findings have yet to impact many fields. This study uses data from nine U.S. election-forecasting models whose
vote-share forecasts are regularly published in academic journals to demonstrate the value of (a) weighting all
predictors equally and (b) including all relevant variables in the model. Across the ten elections from 1976 to
2012, equally weighted predictors yielded a lower forecast error than regression weights for six of the nine
models. On average, the error of the equal-weightsmodelswas 5% lower than the error of the original regression
models. An equal-weights model that uses all 27 variables that are included in the nine models missed the final
vote-share results of the ten elections on average by only 1.3 percentage points. This error is 48% lower than the
error of the typical, and 29% lower than the error of the most accurate, regression model.