Democrat Barack Obama holds a four-point lead over Republican rival John McCain in a tight race for the White House, according to a Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll released today.
Mr Obama leads his rival 48 per cent to 44 per cent among likely US voters in the latest four-day tracking poll, down slightly from Mr Obama's five-point advantage on Friday. The poll has a margin of error of 2.9 percentage points.
"We're essentially in a holding pattern," pollster John Zogby said. "The race has become fairly stable."
Mr Obama maintained a solid 11-point lead among women and a nine-point edge among independents, two key swing voting blocs in the November 4th presidential election.
The Illinois senator has the support of more than nine of every 10 black voters - the most loyal Democratic constituency - and six of every 10 Hispanics.
Mr Obama has moved into a lead in the race after weeks of economic turmoil that led to a sharp plunge in the stock market and a $700 billion government bailout of US financial institutions.
Mr McCain, an Arizona senator, has a 15-point edge among whites and a narrow lead among high-income voters, men and Catholics. But the former Navy pilot and Vietnam prisoner of war trails his Democratic rival among voters with a member of the military in their family.
Most of the polling, conducted Tuesday through Friday, was done after Tuesday's second presidential debate.
Independent Ralph Nader has support from 2 per cent of poll respondents, while Libertarian Bob Barr and Cynthia McKinney of the Green Party registered 1 per cent each. Three per cent of voters said they were still undecided.
The rolling tracking poll surveyed 1,208 likely voters in the presidential election. In a tracking poll, the most recent day's results are added while the oldest day's results are dropped in an effort to track changing momentum.
Reuters