Romney takes lead as election nears

◼ R 50% O 46% - Rasmussen
◼ R 50% O 47% - Gallup
◼ R 49% O 48% - Romney Takes Lead on Economy; White Men are the Movers - ABC
◼ R 47% O 46% - Reuters

Republican candidate Mitt Romney was 1 percentage point ahead of President Barack Obama in Wednesday's Reuters/Ipsos daily tracking poll in a presidential race that is effectively a dead heat less than two weeks before the November 6 election.
In a reversal of Tuesday's results, Romney led Obama among likely voters by 47 percent to 46 percent, a statistically insignificant margin, in the four-day online tracking poll.

Romney held a wider lead among independent voters, who will be crucial to winning on Election Day. Thirty-seven percent of them said they would pick the Republican if elections were held today and 31 percent chose Obama.

Obama, however, had a lead of 53 percent to 42 percent among the 17 percent of the surveyed registered voters who said they had already cast their vote.