Before President Donald Trump's hospitalization for COVID-19, there was little movement in Ohio or Pennsylvania in the latest CBS News Battleground Tracker polls Sunday.
Trump and Joe Biden are in a dead heat in Ohio at 47% apiece, while Biden holds a 7-point lead in Pennsylvania 51%-44%.
Coincidentally, the numbers are reflective of how registered voters will cast their votes. Democrats are overwhelmingly voting by mail, while the majority of Republicans plan to vote in person, according to the poll.
Biden has the edge in both states among those who will likely vote by mail (67%-27% in Ohio and 83%-12% in Pennsylvania), while Trump is preferred by those who plan to vote in person (61%-32% in each state).
Also, there is a hardening of support by each candidate's base. Biden's strong support rose from 80% in August to 86% now, while Trump's strong support rose to 80% from 76%.
Biden outscores Trump by around 2-1 margin for having the right temperament and acting presidential in both states. Biden is above water and Trump well below water in both states on how they handle themselves personally.
The CBS News Battleground Tracker polls were conducted by YouGov between Sept. 30-Oct. 2 among 1,128 registered voters in Ohio and 1,202 in Pennsylvania with margins of error of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points in Ohio and plus or minus 3.1 points in Pennsylvania.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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