Results from the first ever Big Ten Battleground Poll revealed Thursday just how close the presidential race is in the eight states with Big Ten schools.
The poll, conducted by UW-Madison professors of political science Charles Franklin and Ken Goldstein, is a rare regional poll conducted on 600 individuals from each of the Big Ten states.
In a 90-minute show on the Big Ten Network, Franklin, Goldstein and other scholars from the Big Ten universities gave a run-down of each state's results.
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has a less than 1-point lead of 45.2 to 43.3 over Republican presidential candidate John McCain in Wisconsin and holds a 16-point lead in Illinois, which is his only sure win, according to the poll.
Results show Obama also has a narrow lead in Michigan, Minnesota and Ohio, and McCain is winning by a close margin in Indiana, Iowa and Pennsylvania. All of them are toss-up states.
However, according to a statement, the poll has a margin of error of three percentage points.
In early summer Obama had a double-digit lead over McCain in Wisconsin, but that lead has turned into a tossup, according to Franklin.
When we looked at the election across the states, there's a considerable narrowing of the races from where they stood in the summer for the most part,"" Franklin said.
Franklin also said Obama has the support of 60 percent of voters under age 30, but the age group is small and generally has the lowest voter turnout.
""It's going to be a tricky thing to see if he can mobilize enough [of them] to make a substantial difference,"" Franklin said.
In Wisconsin, 74.2 percent of respondents said they think the country is going in the wrong direction, 49.5 believe Wisconsin is also going in the wrong direction, and 82 percent think the economy has gotten worse over the past year.
According to Michael B. Wittenwyler, a UW-Madison law professor, the poll found 53 percent of respondents believe Obama is the best candidate for change, and 71 percent believe McCain is the most experienced.
Wittenwyler said he believes the election is more about change than experience, and the upcoming presidential debates are going to determine the winner.
