Poll shows Obama-Romney in dead heat

U.S. President Obama and likely Republican challenger Mitt Romney were in a virtual tie, a poll conducted before Romney announced his running mate indicated. Obama has the support of 48 percent of likely voters in the new Politico-George Washington University Battleground poll, compared with 47 percent for Romney, a statistical tie within the margin of error, results released Monday indicated. Five percent of voters said they are undecided, results indicated. In May, Romney had 48 percent and Obama was at 47 percent. The poll was conducted before Romney announced Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin would be his running mate. "The overall sort of broader scope of the ballot is that there's been little to no movement," said GOP pollster Ed Goeas of the Tarrance Group, who helped conduct the bipartisan poll. The poll indicated Romney's favorability was evenly split at 46 percent while Obama had 50 percent-to-47 percent showing in favorability over unfavorability. "[Romney's] unfavorables are the highest of any Republican nominee at any point in recent history," Democratic pollster Celinda Lake, who helped conduct the poll, said. Twenty percent of those surveyed said they'd think about voting switching, results indicated. Sixty-two percent of those were Romney supporters saying who could go with Obama, while 38 percent who said they back Obama could end up voting for the Republican candidate. Results are based on a nationwide survey of 1,000 registered likely voters in battleground states Aug. 5-9. The margin of error is 3.1 percentage points.