Posted on 10/11/2004 11:41:12 AM PDT by Jacob Kell
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic challenger John Kerry expanded his slight lead over President Bush to three points in a tight race for the White House, according to a Reuters/Zogby poll released on Monday.
The Massachusetts senator held a 47-44 percent lead over Bush in the latest three-day tracking poll, up two points from Sunday. Bush's support dropped one point and Kerry's support rose one point in the new poll.
The close race turns up the pressure for Wednesday's final debate in Tempe, Arizona, when the White House rivals will have another chance to make their case to voters on domestic issues.
The poll found six percent of likely voters are still undecided about the race with barely more than three weeks to go until the Nov. 2 election, and 16 percent of the voters who identify themselves as independents are undecided.
Bush made small gains among young voters and Kerry picked up strength among women voters ahead of the debate -- the final chance for both candidates to speak directly to an audience of millions of voters.
"Wednesday's debate is vital because many sub-groups remain close and because so many independents have yet to make up their minds," pollster John Zogby said.
The poll of 1,214 likely voters was taken Friday through Sunday and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points. The rolling poll will continue through Nov. 1 -- the day before the election.
The last two days of polling came after Bush and Kerry battered each other over Iraq, jobs and taxes during a debate on Friday. The economy and Iraq are consistently listed as the top issues in the race.
A tracking poll combines the results of three consecutive nights of polling, then drops the first night's results each time a new night is added. It allows pollsters to record shifts in voter sentiment as they happen.
The poll found 48 percent of voters thought the United States was headed in the wrong direction and 45 percent thought it was headed in the right direction.
It also showed independent candidate Ralph Nader, blamed by some Democrats for drawing enough votes from Al Gore to cost him the election in 2000, earning the support of 1.7 percent of likely voters.
This turkey has been posted half a dozen times.
I didn't know that.
Taken on a holiday weekend when the odds of democrat losers being home doing nothing are good
Right. And, I have a magic rock that keeps tigers away.
Well, have you seen any tigers come around since you got it?
Zogby is pretty clever. He is the only one who consistently keeps this thing as back and forth contest. He knows that the only poll remebered will be his last one and that is why he keeps 6% to 7% undecideds in his poll. On the last one, he can tick the percentages of either candidate by a point or two and then assign all the undecideds to Bush who will win.
Sorry Zog, my magic 8 ball tells me Bush will win.
No, sir. I have not.
The latest Wash. Post poll had only 2% undecided. If that's true than cement is starting to harden for voter preferences.
Just another load of crap liberal media driven poll.
Even in this new Zogby poll, Kerry unlike Bush seems incapable of getting above 50 percent. Check out http://www.realclearpolitics.com/bush_vs_kerry.html It seems Kerry could not hit 50 in any poll over the last four months, whereas Bush has done it as recently as last week.
Exactly.
Zogby used to be fairly dependable when he use normal polling methods. Lately he has invented a completely unique and unorthodox method which involve an absurd level of micromanaging his demographics sample. His past performance is no longer relevant. His new methods are so heavily tweaked, they are virtually guaranteed to show little more then his own desires.
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