Post-Sandy Gallup Poll Shows Tight Presidential Race

The polling organization was an outlier before the storm halted its surveys; now it's in line with most other national polls.

Updated: May 30, 2013 | 12:11 a.m.
November 5, 2012 | 2:25 p.m.

An outlier no longer, Gallup on Monday released a poll that showed Mitt Romney and President Obama locked in a dead heat among likely voters nationwide. The GOP presidential nominee held a statistically insignificant 49 percent to 48 percent edge over Obama.

The results are consistent with other recent surveys that show a tight national race (Obama led by 1 percentage point in an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released on Sunday). But they’re a marked departure for Gallup, which had shown Romney holding a comfortable edge in its likely-voter model before Hurricane Sandy forced a suspension of the Gallup tracking poll.

The last poll before Sandy, released on Oct. 29, had Romney leading Obama by 5 points, 51 percent to 46 percent.

Monday’s survey was conducted Nov. 1 through Nov. 4.

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