Presidential Race Called a Tossup in Wisconsin

The latest poll by Marquette University shows a virtual tie between President Obama and Mitt Romney in the race for Wisconsin’s 10 electoral votes.

The last two times Marquette polled likely voters in Wisconsin it found President Obama with a double-digit lead. Marquette pollster Charles Franklin says all that has changed with this latest survey which gives President Obama a 49-48 percent lead over Mitt Romney, “And that really needs to be seen as a tie.They’re separated by fractions of a percentage point. It’s not quite a full percentage point between them.”

Put another way, if you look at the entire sample of 870 likely voters in this survey, the President leads Romney by a grand total of four voters.

The poll was taken before last night’s presidential debate but after the first debate. Romney’s numbers improved on multiple measures. He actually picked up support from Republicans. And Franklin says Romney now leads among self-identified Independent voters. That group was previously backing the President, “You put these together and you end up with a very tight race.”

The Marquette survey found a similar situation in Wisconsin’s U.S. Senate race with Republican Tommy Thompson leading Democrat Tammy Baldwin 46-45 percent. Franklin says that race is also tied. Out of the 870 people surveyed, Thompson leads Baldwin by a total of just three voters.