As the two parties prepare to hold their quadrennial conventions in important battlegrounds over the next two weeks, new CNN/Time/ORC polls released Monday show close races in the two host states prior to any bounces in the polls from the festivities.
In Florida, where, following a brief delay due to Tropical Storm Isaac, Republicans are set to gather in Tampa on Tuesday, President Obama actually has a slight edge, the poll shows. The ticket of Obama and Vice President Joe Biden leads the presumptive Republican ticket of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan among likely general election voters, 50 percent to 46 percent.
Male voters in Florida favor Romney, 50 percent to 46 percent. But Obama wins women by 12 percentage points, 54 percent to 42 percent.
In North Carolina, where Democrats will meet next week in Charlotte, the two tickets are neck-and-neck, with Romney/Ryan edging in front of Obama/Biden, 48 percent to 47 percent.
Romney has a 14-point edge among men, 55 percent to 41 percent, while Obama leads among female voters, 52 percent to 42 percent.
The two parties are targeting the sliver of the electorate in each state that is still undecided. More than four-in-five likely voters in each state say their minds are made up before the conventions even begin.
The polls, conducted Aug. 22-26, surveyed 763 likely voters in Florida and 766 likely voters in North Carolina. Each poll carries a margin of error of plus-or-minus 3.5 percentage points.
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