US President George W Bush and Democratic Senator John Kerry remain deadlocked in the White House race going into their final debate, according to a Reuters/Zogby poll released today.
Mr Bush and Mr Kerry are holding steady at 45 per cent each in the latest three-day tracking poll, raising the stakes for Wednesday night's pivotal final debate in Tempe, Arizona.
The debate, the last big scheduled event in the campaign, could give the winner a critical boost in momentum for the final three-week push to the November 2nd election.
"The third debate is crucial," pollster John Zogby said, pointing out that 7 per cent of likely voters remain undecided ahead of the encounter.
Zogby said only 11 per cent of those undecided voters felt Mr Bush deserved to be re-elected and 40 per cent thought it was time for someone new. Nearly half of the undecideds were uncertain whether Mr Bush should get another term.
Whether Mr Kerry can persuade those undecided voters he is up to the job of president and motivate them to go to the polls in November could be key, Mr Zogby said.
The final debate, on the campus of Arizona State University, will focus on domestic issues like jobs, taxes and healthcare, which usually favour Democrats but have been overshadowed this year by the raging arguments over the Iraq war.
President Bush has stepped up his attacks on the Massachusetts senator's voting record in the past few weeks, labelling him a liberal who would raise taxes and burden the healthcare system with government regulation and bureaucracy.
Mr Kerry will argue that the first term of the Bush administration has produced fewer jobs, higher petrol prices, bigger budget deficits and more uninsured people.
The poll of 1,232 likely voters was taken Sunday, Monday and Tuesday and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points. The rolling poll will continue until November 1st - the day before the election.
A tracking poll combines the results of three consecutive nights of polling, then drops the first night's results each time a new night is added. It allows pollsters to record shifts in voter sentiment as they happen.
The poll showed independent candidate Mr Ralph Nader, blamed by some Democrats for drawing enough votes from Al Gore to cost him the election in 2000, picked up the support of 1.5 per cent of likely voters.