Voters in swing states are evenly split between President Obama and GOP nominee Mitt Romney, according to a new poll from USA Today and Gallup.
According to the poll, which was released late Sunday, 48 percent of likely voters in 12 of the nation’s key battleground states back Obama, while 48 percent prefer Romney.
The poll, which was conducted from Oct. 27-31, surveyed voters from Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin.
News of the latest poll results come as the president and his Republican challenger each crisscrossed the country Sunday to energize supporters in key states as a tightly contested presidential race comes down to the wire.
Both campaigns sounded optimistic about their chances on Tuesday.
The USA Today/Gallup numbers are a four-point improvement for the president following the previous USA Today poll taken in early October, just a few days after a disappointing first debate against Romney in Denver.
Obama also leads by four points among registered voters, at 50 percent to 46 percent, marking the first time either candidate has hit 50 percent plateau since the former Massachusetts governor clinched the Republican nomination in the spring.
The poll also showed Obama regaining a strong edge with female voters, who had drifted toward Romney after the first debate, boosting him in the national polls. The president now enjoys a 16-point lead among women, while Romney holds a 10-point advantage with women.
Romney, however, also leads among independent voters by one point and holds an edge on the economy, which most voters agree is the most important issue of the election.
Romney trails the president by five points in Iowa, according to a Des Moines Register poll, but he held a six-point advantage in Florida, according to a Tampa Bay Tribune/Miami Herald/Mason Dixon survey.
A new national Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll of likely voters found the two men in a virtual dead heat, with Obama leading his rival by a whisker, 48 percent to 47 percent.
With polls continuing to show Romney trailing in Ohio, his campaign and the GOP are making a last-minute push to try to seize Pennsylvania and its 20 electoral votes, a win that would scramble the electoral map and negate a potential loss in Ohio.
Romney and his allies are blitzing Pennsylvania with $11 million in broadcast ads during the last week of the campaign, compared to $3.7 million by Obama, who isn’t supported by outside groups there.
The election’s outcome looks set to pivot on the share of the vote cast by white, Latino and African-American voters.
