US Election: Ohio, Florida swing to Obama

Three days to the US presidential election, new polls show that President Barack Obama maintains a lead over his Republican rival, Mitt Romney, in the key battleground states of Ohio and in Florida.

The NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist survey made public Friday indicated that Obama holds a six-point advantage over Romney among likely voters in Ohio – 51 percent to 45 percent.

Victories in these two states will be key to winning the White House on Tuesday. Ohio awards 18 electoral college votes and Florida 29.

A candidate needs 270 electoral college votes to win a second term.

The NBC/WSJ/Marist poll of Florida had a margin of error of plus-minus 2.5 percentage points while the survey of Ohio had a margin of sampling error of plus-minus 3.1 percentage points.

After several weeks of polls suggesting a neck-and-neck race, there were new signs that Obama’s position, as he seeks a second term, may be solidifying.

National polls of the popular vote now mostly show a tied race or with either man up one point — but with time running out Obama’s position in key battleground states seems to be holding.

A CNN/Opinion Research poll showed Obama up three points in Ohio, raising his average in the RealClearPolitics aggregate of opinion surveys in the state to 2.4 points.

The president also leads Romney in enough of the eight or so swing states to assure himself of the 270 electoral votes needed for re-election, if polling data is confirmed by voting.

The poll numbers are emerging as the two candidates embark on a gruelling weekend campaign to convince voters to stick with them.

According to an AFP report, the rivals will chase one another through the battleground states that will decide Tuesday’s election, with Obama seeking to solidify his midwestern line of defense, while Romney seeks an eleventh hour breakthrough.

Obama will campaign in Ohio, the possible tipping point state, before heading to Wisconsin and Iowa, his trio of “firewall” battlegrounds ahead of a late night rally in Virginia, where he still hopes for an insurance win.

Romney, fresh from the biggest rally of his campaign, which drew around 18,000 people on a cold night in West Chester, Ohio, Friday will travel to New Hampshire, Iowa and Colorado.

In a show of close combat on the last weekend of the campaign, both candidates will be in the eastern Iowa town of Dubuque, within hours of one another.

Romney warmed up for the frenzied last weekend with a huge rally in Ohio, bringing together his former primary rivals Rick Santorum and Rick Perry, along with Obama’s 2008 rival John McCain.

In all, 45 lawmakers and relatives of the candidate and running mate Paul Ryan — wearing Romney jackets — attended the rally near the Republican stronghold of Cincinnati.

“We’re almost home. One final push will get us there,” Romney said before a crowd police estimated to be at least 18,000 strong. “We are so very, very close. The door to a brighter future is there, it’s open, it’s waiting for us.”

Obama had earlier evaded a last-minute time bomb as the economy pumped out more jobs than expected in October, delivering a boost to his re-election hopes as the final weekend of campaigning begins.

Romney, however, seized on an uptick in the jobless rate by a tenth of a point to 7.9 percent to bemoan an economy at a “virtual standstill.”

The election takes place on Tuesday 6 November.