Most people would be able to answer those without any frantic Googling. It's a good gut-check question, and that's why pollsters ask the bland-yet-appropriately-named "generic ballot" question about congressional races. And it's why we're going to talk about them today.

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Generic ballot questions are generally a good indicator of how Americans feel about any given party at any given moment. And because most people vote for their member of Congress based on party, generic ballot questions are also helpful data points to game out which party is going to control the House of Representatives in January.

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There's no one magic number, and generic balloting isn't perfect at predicting wins, but history suggests that Democrats need to have a much bigger lead (6 to 7 points) in this question than Republicans (3-ish points) to win a majority in the House. And even though Donald Trump's wobbling campaign has opened the door a crack for House Democrats, generic balloting from this past weekend suggests that Americans aren't all that keen about having a Democratic Congress.

In new Washington Post-ABC News and NBC News-Wall Street Journal polls, likely voters say they prefer Democrats in the House over Republicans by 3 percentage points.

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Three points for Democrats is a small margin that can basically be read as flat. Democrats tend to have a 2-to-3 point advantage simply because there are slightly more Democrats than Republicans in the country, says Stu Rothenberg, a political House handicapper and Washington Post columnist. That doesn't mean all of those Democratic voters will cast ballots — and historically, GOP voters are more likely to turn out. As The Fix's Aaron Blake notes, the fact that generic ballot polling is in such a small margin is good news for House Republicans.

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It's when Democrats have a 6- or 7-point lead that they can start getting excited and Republicans can start to worry, Rothenberg says.

As recently as a week ago, it seemed there was reason for both: An NBC-Wall Street Journal poll taken in the days after Trump's 2005 tape leaked found Democrats had a 7-point margin in this generic ballot question. Since the tape came out, Republican operatives have tracked an average 4-point drop in support for Republicans in competitive districts.

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But things can change quickly. And generic balloting is not the be-all, end-all polling question for which party is going to control the House. (Unfortunately, no such question exists.)

Since we're all about trying to game out Nov. 8 before Nov. 8, let's delve into what recent history can tell us.

In 2008, Democrats went into Election Day with a 9-point advantage among likely voters in the generic ballot question, according to the RealClearPolitics average of this question. They netted 21 seats and expanded their majority.

In 2010, Republicans had a more than 9-point advantage in the generic ballot question. And the Republican Party won 63 seats and the majority.

In 2012, the generic ballot question was basically tied , and Republicans lost eight House seats while GOP nominee Mitt Romney lost by four points.

In 2014, Republicans had a two-point advantage , and they netted 13 seats.