Associated Press Poll Shows Obama and McCain Tied, Many Undecided Voters

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Oct 22, 2008   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Associated Press Poll Shows Obama and McCain Tied, Many Undecided Voters

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
October 22
, 2008

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — A new Associated Press poll released on Wednesday shows the presidential campaign essentially tied, as pro-abortion candidate Barack Obama has a one point lead. Within the margin of error, the AP poll shows Obama with 44 percent and John McCain, who opposes abortion, with 43 percent.

The Associated Press-GfK poll shows a high number of undecided voters heading into the final two weeks of the election.

The one point lead shows McCain eating into the seven point advantage Obama had in the same poll three weeks ago.

Despite the good news in the AP survey, other national polls released from reputable polling firms on Wednesday showed Obama with a lead anywhere from two to eight percentage points.

Media polls, which have been questioned for having a higher percentage of Democratic voters, show the higher leads for Obama while polls from nonpartisan firms like Rasmussen show closer races.

A Washington University Battleground Poll, run by Republican pollster Ed Goeas and Democratic pollster Celinda Lake, has Obama leading by just two percent.

AP said its own poll may show more accurate results because it relied on including a random sampling of cell phone users, whereas other surveys rely only on interviewing voters with land lines.

Looking at some of the results of the new AP poll, McCain posted gains among lower income voters (down 4 instead of losing by 26 points) and now has much higher lead with rural voters (up 18 instead of leading by 4) than he did before.

McCain also increased his lead among less educated white voters, and now leads by 22 percent among white men and 7 percent among white women.

The senator also cut into Obama’s lead on the question of which candidates voters say will better handle the economy and Obama now leads by just 6 points compared with 16 in the last survey.

The AP poll also found that McCain supporters are now just about as excited as Obama backers about their candidate. That could help McCain with turnout on and before election day and increase his showing further.

The survey found 80 percent of Democrats backing Obama, 90 percent of Republicans supporting McCain, and independents evenly split. Some 24 percent of all voters were still undecided or weakly supporting their preferred candidate.

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