Democrat Barack Obama's lead over Republican rival John McCain dipped slightly to 5 points with three days left in the race for the White House, according to a Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll released today.
sen Obama leads sen McCain by 49 per cent to 44 per cent among likely voters in the three-day national tracking poll, down from a 7-point advantage released yesterday. The telephone poll has a margin of error of 2.9 percentage points.
Mr McCain, who made solid gains in yesterday's single day of polling, cut Sen Obama's lead among independents from 15 points to 6 points and among women from 9 points to 4 points.
Sen Obama's support dropped below the 50 per cent mark after two consecutive days at that level. Sen McCain's support has never moved above the 45 per cent mark in the more than three weeks the tracking poll has been taken.
Obama has led McCain in every national opinion poll since late September, and McCain also trails in many of the key battleground states including Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania.
But Sen McCain and his campaign aides say he is clawing back, and Sen McCain enlisted the help of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in the battleground state of Ohio on Friday.
"I know a winning campaign when I see one," Mr McCain said. "We're a couple of points back. Arnold said it best. The Mac is back."
The tracking poll showed Obama still holds an 8-point edge among Catholics and a 6-point lead among men. The Illinois senator led among all age groups except those voters between the ages of 30 and 49.
McCain, a former Navy fighter pilot and Vietnam prisoner of war, trails by 5 points among voters with a member of the military in their family.
The Arizona senator was also winning over only 26 per cent of Hispanics, a fast-growing group that gave President George W. Bush more than 40 per cent of their vote in 2004.
Obama also does a better job of bridging the ideological divide. He is attracting 19 per cent of self-described conservatives, the poll found, while McCain gains only 6 per cent of liberals.
Independent Ralph Nader received 2 per cent in the national survey, and Libertarian Bob Barr was at 1 per cent. About 2 percent of voters remain undecided.
The US presidency is determined by which candidate wins the Electoral College, which has 538 members apportioned by population in each state and the District of Columbia. Electoral votes are allotted on a winner-take-all basis in all but two states, which divide them by congressional district.