国际英语新闻:Obama, Romney essentially tied in polls two days before election

WASHINGTON, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obama and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney remain essentially tied in national polls just two days from the election on Tuesday.

According to the latest NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released Sunday, Obama leads Romney with 48 percent to 47 percent in support from likely voters. In the same poll released two weeks ago, the two candidates were deadlocked at 47 percent each.

The NBC/WSJ poll was conducted Nov. 1-3 of 1,475 likely voters, including 443 cellphone-only respondents, and has a margin of error of plus-minus 2.55 percentage points.

The results were essentially the same with the latest Washington Post-ABC News tracking poll released on the same day. The Washington Post/ABC News poll showed the two candidates deadlocked at 48 percent among likely voters, and for the first time this year, the two were tied among independents, with 46 percent apiece. Before this poll, Romney had been consistently ahead with these potentially critical voters. The new results were gathered from interviews conducted from Oct. 30 to Nov. 2, among a random sample of 1,809 likely voters, and have an error margin of plus or minus three percentage points.

Consistent with the two polls, a Politico/George Washington University battleground tracking poll also put the two in a dead heat, with Obama and Romney each gaining 48 percent support. The poll was taken from Oct. 29 to Nov. 1, and interviewed 1,000 likely voters, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

Obama and Romney are focusing their energy and resources in a handful of swing states with just two days to go before Americans go to voting stations to elect the country's next president.