President Barack Obama has a slightly larger lead in Florida over Republican challenger Mitt Romney in a new Quinnipiac poll released Wednesday than in previous surveys.
The Quinnipiac University/ CBS News/New York Times Swing State Poll found Obama with a 51-45 percent lead over Romney in Florida.
Pollsters said it can’t be compared with earlier polls because it’s the first measure of “likely voters.” Pollster Peter Brown said the lowering unemployment rate is likely helping Obama in Florida.
“Half of all likely voters say the economy is the most important issue to their vote, far ahead of any other issue” Brown said. “The saving grace for Gov. Mitt Romney is that he roughly breaks even with the president on who is best on the economy.”
Ten percent of voters polled said they might change their mind.
The Florida poll was part of a three state “swing” poll that also surveyed in Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Romney backers have also criticized the Quinnipiac poll about how many people who say they’re Democrats versus how many people who identify as Republicans it includes in its sample of voters, arguing the pollsters over-represent the number of Democrats polled. But Democrats have also recently complained the poll undersamples Democrats when Romney was ahead.
In this case, 36 percent of respondents identified as Democrats, 27 percent as Republicans and 32 percent as independents. Republicans say the election turnout could be much closer than that.
The poll of 1,177 likely Florida voters was done July 24-30 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.9 percent.
