Presidential tracking polls show Obama leading by ‘razor-thin margin’ over Romney

Washington - The national tracking polls are showing signs of a slight uptick for President Barack Obama after the second presidential debate in New York.

The most recent national tracking surveys released continue to give a mixed result in terms of the nominal leader, but one shows a relatively close race between Obama and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney.

With the exception of the Gallup Daily tracking poll, none gives a lead to Obama that can be considered statistically significant for any individual poll.

However, the most recent results of five of the six tracking polls show net movement to Obama or away from Romney of between 1 and 4 percentage points compared to results from interviews conducted by each pollster between the first and second presidential debates, the Huffington Post reports.

Two of these polls, the automated telephone surveys conducted by Rasmussen Reports and the Democratic Party affiliated firm Public Policy Polling (PPP), have been completed since the debate on October 16, the report said.

But again, five of the six polls show at least a 1 percentage point gain for Obama. Gallup is once again the exception, showing a 4-point net gain for Romney since early October, the report added.

As of Saturday evening, HuffPost Pollster poll showed Obama with a razor-thin margin over Romney (47.2 to 46.8 percent), which represents a gain of just under a half a percentage point over the last six days, the report said.

While Obama’s razor-thin advantage in the popular vote as estimated by the model and the change over the last seven days are both still too small to be considered statistically significant, the model's reported confidence that Obama is leading the national popular vote has ticked up from 50 to 65 percent over the past week, the report added.

At the state level, polls continue to generally confirm the results of the past two weeks.

Romney has certainly gained in the battleground states since the first debate. He now leads in North Carolina, Florida and -- by a whisker -- Virginia.

Yet the poll tracking model continues to show Romney trailing Obama by 2 percentage points or more in Iowa, Ohio, Wisconsin and Nevada, the report said.

These states would combine with other states where Obama is further ahead to get him to 277 electoral votes, slightly more than 270 needed to win, it added.