Poll: Obama, Romney head to debate deadlocked
President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney will head to the stage for their first debate Wednesday night tied among likely voters, according to the latest United Technologies/National Journal Congressional Connection poll.
However, voters remain hesitant to hand off full control of the federal government to either political party.
The new survey emphasizes how close the presidential race has been so far, although most other recent polls have Obama with a narrow lead.
President Obama and Romney each garnered 47 percent support in the survey, conducted Sept. 27-30. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.
The former Massachusetts governor held a lead among Independents, 49 percent to 41 percent. He also lead among wealthier voters with an income of $75,000 or more (57 percent to 37 percent), and had an edge over Obama among white voters (55 percent to 38 percent) and men (50 percent to 42 percent).
President Obama had slightly more favor among women (51 percent to 44 percent) and an even great lead among those making $30,000 or less a year (61 percent to 33 percent).
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The category with the biggest gap, however, was among black voters: 98 percent of those who identified themselves as black said they'd vote for Obama, while none said they'd pick Romney. Other polls have had similar gaps.
Over 90 percent of Republicans and Democrats said they would vote for the candidate in their party.
The survey also showed the public's general uneasiness with both the Democratic and Republican parties. The majority of voters (55 percent) said that if Obama is reelected, they'd rather have Republicans keep at least one chamber of Congress. And more than six in 10 voters said that if Romney wins, they hope Democrats could keep at least one chamber, according to the National Journal.