At the end of the final weekend of campaigning to become New Hampshire's next U.S. senator, Democratic incumbent Jeanne Shaheen and Republican challenger Scott Brown are in a dead heat, with two new polls indicating the race is too close to call.
According to a
New England College poll conducted Oct. 31-Nov. 1 of 1,526 likely voters, Brown is half a point ahead of Shaheen, with 48.7 percent support for Brown compared to 48.2 percent support for Shaheen, well within the poll's 2.51 percent margin of error. Just 1.7 percent say they are undecided.
"This poll follows the final set of televised debates and comes just a few days before Election Day. It is the fourth week in a row that the Senate race is a statistical tie, and the third week in row that Scott Brown enjoys a very modest lead. The Senate race will come right down to the wire," said Dr. Wayne Lesperance, director of the Center for Civic Engagement, in a statement.
The survey showed that Shaheen has a 6.8 percent lead among women while Brown leads among men by 8.9 percent.
Lesperance, who described the race as a "compete toss-up," said that it may ultimately come down to factors that the candidates cannot control: the length of the lines at polling stations, whether same-day registrants have difficulty casting their vote, and the weather, among other things.
Meanwhile, the
WMUR Granite State Poll also indicated that the race was too close to call. The survey, conducted Oct. 29-Nov. 2 of 757 likely voters, gave Shaheen a three-point lead of 46 percent compared to 43 percent for Brown with a 3.6 percent margin of error.
However, after the pollsters accounted for the leanings of the 10 percent of people who said they were undecided and allocated them to each candidate, the race narrows to within one-point: Shaheen has 49 percent support compared to 48 percent for Brown.
The pollsters called the New Hampshire race "too close to call."