Presidential Polls 2012: Romney Still Ahead, But Young Voters Support Obama
Political pundits who declared Barack Obama the winner of Tuesday night's presidential debate say the incumbent president will see a bump in the polls based on his victory, but voter surveys have not yet had time to incorporate the debate into their results.
National polling firm Rasmussen's daily poll update shows Republican nominee Mitt Romney ahead with support from 49 percent of voters, while Obama has 47 percent. Of the other respondents, 2 percent are undecided and 2 percent support a different candidate.
But Rasmussen explains in its daily analysis that its polling methodology requires some time before the candidates' debate performance can be factored in, and those results won't be available until the weekend.
"These updates are based upon nightly polling and reported on a three-day rolling average basis. As a result, roughly two-thirds of the interviews for today's update were completed before Tuesday night's presidential debate," Rasmussen explained. "Saturday morning will be the first update based entirely upon interviews conducted after the second debate."
One thing, however, does appear certain: Barack Obama will carry the support of younger voters.
A new study by Harvard University's Institute of Politics found that among voters aged 30 and younger, Obama has the clear advantage with 55 percent to Romney's 36 percent. Though that margin is large, it isn't as big as the one in 2008, when Obama led challenger John McCain among young voters by a whopping 34 percentage points.
Although Obama has support from more young people, the Harvard study found that Romney's young supporters are more enthusiastic. Of young voters who favor Romney, 65 percent said they will "definitely" vote on election day, while only 55 percent of Obama's young supporters guaranteed they will turn out on Nov. 6.
Trey Grayson, director of Harvard's Institute of Politics, said the study's results show that young voters are less engaged in this election than they were four years ago.
"As enthusiasm for voting continues to slip among America's 18- to 29-year olds, the IOP's latest poll shows a clear sentiment by young adults that Washington is broken," Grayson said.
