Presidential Polls Colorado: Race Still Close Between Obama, Romney
After months and months of campaigning across the country, presidential candidates Barack Obama and Mitt Romney will finally meet their fate today as millions of Americans head to the polls and cast their votes for who will occupy the White House for the next four years.
This race has been one of the most hotly contested in years, and as pundits and political commentators work to predict the winner first, the attention is focused squarely on a handful of key swing states that could ultimately decide the outcome of the election.
According to The Huffington Post's Electoral College map projection, which is based on an analysis of various nationwide and state by state polling data, the five states still in the toss up pile as of Saturday are Colorado, Florida, New Hampshire North Carolina and Virginia.
Those states represent a total of 70 electoral votes — a hefty sum considering each candidate needs a total of 270 electoral votes to successfully win the election. That sum would be incredibly valuable to either candidate, based on The Huffington Post's current projection, which has President Obama at 277 electoral votes and Romney at 191 votes.
In Colorado, a total of 9 electoral votes are up for grabs to the candidate who can carry the state on Election Day.
As of Tuesday morning, the advantage in Colorado goes to Obama, according to The Huffington Post's data. The president is polling at 49 percent in that state, while his GOP challenger Romney lags behind by two percentage points at 47 percent.
But data from national polling firm Rasmussen shows a different story.
In that poll, Romney is ahead with support from 50 percent of Colorado voters surveyed, while Obama has support from 47 percent of voters in the poll. Of the remaining respondents, 2 percent plans to vote for a different candidate and 1 percent is still undecided.
The poll also revealed important insight into how Colorado voters view each candidate in relation to the campaign's hot-button issues.
"Voters in the state trust Romney more than Obama by nine points — 53 percent to 44 precent — when it comes to handling the economy and by five points — 51 percent to 46 percent — in the area of national security," the report said. "That's slightly more confidence in both areas than voters express in Romney nationwide. But by a 51 percent to 46 percent margin, Colorado voters think the president better understands the issues of the middle class."
