Presidential Polls 2012: Obama Still Behind Romney With Six Days To Election
With less than one week to go before the 2012 presidential election, President Barack Obama still lags behind his Republican challenger in nationwide polling data.
According to the latest data from national polling firm Rasmussen, which was released on Wednesday, Romney is holding on to his lead among voters across the country, but the GOP nominee is only ahead of the incumbent by a hair.
The Rasmussen poll shows that Romney has support from 49 percent of registered voters included in the survey, while Obama lags behind by two percentage points with support from 47 percent. Of the remaining respondents included in the poll, 2 percent plan to vote for a different candidate, while 3 percent are still undecided about how they will cast their ballot on Election Day.
The polling firm acknowledged in its daily tracking update that the damage of Hurricane Sandy did affect the polls in a small way.
"Rasmussen Reports is based in Asbury Park, New Jersey, and we were hit hard by Hurricane Sandy," the report said. "However, our survey interview calls are placed from a different location, so data gathering was able to continue. [Wednesday], however, we will release only a limited amount of data. We hope to resume a more complete schedule [Thursday]."
But now that the storm is over and Rasmussen pollsters can get back to work, the firm is ramping up its work in the final days before the country heads to the official polls to choose its next president.
"For most of the year, Rasmussen Reports has conducted 500 survey interviews per night and reported the results on a three-day rolling average basis. For the final week of the campaign, we will conduct 1,000 survey interviews per night," the report said.
As the election winds down, the candidates will likely be focusing most of the energy of their campaigns on a handful of key swing states that could decide the election, including Ohio, Virginia and Florida.
