Poll: NH a tight sprint to the finish line

The race in New Hampshire, the state where Mitt Romney kicked off his presidential campaign and will hold his final event Monday night, continues to be a close contest between the GOP nominee and President Barack Obama.

A new poll released Monday indicates the incumbent president has a slender margin in the state over Romney, who once served as the governor of neighboring Massachusetts.

Fifty-percent of likely voters say they support Obama, while 45 percent say they back Romney, according to the WMUR-University of New Hampshire poll. Four percent are undecided, and one percent say they prefer another candidate.

When undecided voters are asked which candidate they lean towards, Obama's advantage narrows to three points over Romney, 51 percent-48 percent. One percent say they would choose a different candidate. The three-point margin falls within the survey's sampling error.

Among independents, Romney leads Obama 50 percent-36 percent, but the president leads among women 58 percent-40 percent. Also of note, 10 percent of those who voted for Obama in 2008 are now picking the GOP presidential ticket, while 4 percent of those who chose Sen. John McCain four years ago are now supporting the president.

The new poll shows a narrower gap between the two candidates than a separate WMUR poll released last week, which showed Romney and Obama tied at 48 percent. Other recent polls have indicated the president holds a slim margin over his opponent, while an American Research Group survey released late last month showed Romney ahead by 2 percentage points.

Both campaigns have been visiting the state, which has four electoral votes, in the final days before the election. Obama held an event in Concord on Sunday, while Romney ends his campaign in Manchester Monday night.

Obama carried New Hampshire in 2008 by nearly 10 percent over Sen. John McCain.

For the survey, the University of New Hampshire interviewed 789 likely voters by telephone from Nov. 1 through Nov/ 4. The sampling error is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.