Poll roundup: Race tight between Obama and Romney
A roundup of national presidential polls released Sunday showed Obama and Romney in a close tie, with Obama gaining slim margins, two days before Election Day
WASHINGTON – A round of polls released Sunday showed President Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney locked in a tight race, though the latest poll out from the Pew Research Center had Obama pulling ahead with 50 percent to Romney’s 47 percent.
Among likely voters, Pew’s survey found Obama holding a 48 percent to 45 lead over Romney. With the “probable decisions” of undecided voters taken into account, Pew’s final estimate jumps to 50 percent to 47 percent in favor of the president.
According to a Reuters/Ipsos daily tracking poll released Sunday, the race remained in a dead heat ahead of Tuesday's election.
Of 3,805 likely voters polled nationally, 48 percent said they would vote for Democrat Obama, while 47 percent sided with Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, the Reuters/Ipsos poll showed.
The results fall within the poll's credibility interval, a tool used to account for statistical variation in Internet-based polls.
In the key battleground state of Ohio -- perhaps the single most crucial swing state -- Obama had a slim edge over Romney, with 48 percent to Romney's 44 percent. On Saturday, Obama was ahead in Ohio by a point in the same poll.
Obama and Romney have been locked in a neck-and-neck race for weeks. Over the weekend, both were making final appearances in a few crucial states, hoping to sway a shrinking number of undecided voters and to encourage their supporters to get to the polls.
The poll's credibility interval was plus or minus 3.4 percentage points for likely voters.
In the final national NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll before the election, the numbers are the same: 48 percent of likely voters support Obama, with 47 percent for Romney. A majority of surveys from the battleground states show the president with a slight advantage.
The latest Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll released Sunday shows the race tied dead even, with both Obama and Romney each garnering 49 percent of the likely vote. One percent prefers some other candidate and another one percent remains undecided. In addition Electoral College projections and racial and ethnic breakdowns of what may come on Tuesday, Rasmussen points out another number: 27 percent of Americans say the upcoming election has negatively affected their personal relationship with a friend or family member.
In the ABC News/Washington Post poll released Sunday, the two candidates were neck-and-neck at 48 percent each.
Politico/George Washington University/Battleground reports much of the same: 48 percent each. But, Politico says, regardless of who they support, 53 percent of voters believe that Obama will be re-elected, and historically, this question predicts this actual winner.
