Obama-Biden Hold 7-Point Lead: "Undecided" Voters Slightly Advantage McCain-Palin

New York, NY - Today's Diageo/Hotline Daily Tracker Poll shows the Obama-Biden ticket maintaining lead over McCain-Palin among likely voters.

In today's Poll, Obama-Biden is at 49%, McCain-Palin is at 42%, and 6% of likely voters are still undecided.

General Election Ballot: McCain-Palin v Obama-Biden*

Today's Poll shows that 18% of voters have already voted, and among those voters, Obama-Biden leads McCain-Palin by 16 percentage points, (54% - 38%).

Spotlight on Undecided Voters

In aggregating the "Undecided" extremely likely or very likely voters over the past two weeks (October 14-28) into a subsample of 275 voters, the Poll finds that these undecided voters tend to slightly favor a Republican candidate over a Democratic candidate.

Specifically, this analysis find that 29% of undecided voters identify themselves as Republicans, 38% self-identify as Independents and 22% self-identify as Democrats.

In looking at who undecided voters intend to vote for in Congressional elections, the analysis finds that a solid majority (61%) have no preference, 21% support the Republican candidate for Congress and 18% support Democratic candidate for Congress

On the measure of who is "more prepared to lead the country", John McCain leads Barack Obama 39%-11% (+28), with 51% unable to choose either candidate

And, on the measure of who better understands the need and priorities of voters, Barack Obama leads John McCain 34%-17% (+17), with 49% unable to choose either candidate

"There are no clear indications based on demographics or attitudes that undecided voters will break significantly for one candidate over the other," said Brent McGoldrick, Vice President of FD. "However, when it comes to measures of self-identification, congressional vote preference and attitudes regarding who is more prepared to lead, McCain enjoys a slight advantage among undecided voters."

Issues/ Preparedness

In terms of expected performance on the economy, the Poll shows Obama expanding his lead over McCain, which has increased from a 9-point gap in the October 25 Poll, to a 13-point difference in today's Poll, (49% - 36%).

Who would do Best Job Handling the Economy?*

Today's Poll shows that the two candidates are at parity in terms of preparedness to lead, as McCain's 2-point lead on this measure (46%-44%) is within the margin of error.

Preparedness to Lead*

* data presented in charts based on rolling 3-day average of 800+ likely voter interviews (out of 900+ registered voter interviews) concluded the previous day. This is based on at least 300 interviews conducted daily.

download the complete analysis