Voters in New Hampshire, who often feel taken for granted in the electoral process because the state has only four electoral votes, are awakening to the realization that their votes may matter a great deal in November. And as a result of that realization and Mitt Romney’s decisive win in the first presidential debate, a cataclysmic shift has occurred in the state.
On October 1, a poll by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center showed Obama with a 15-point lead, 52% to 37%. But in a poll by Suffolk University just released last night of 500 likely voters in the state, Romney and Obama are now tied at 47%. This is a seismic shift.
Pollster David Paleologos said the favorability numbers were virtually identical for each candidate: 50% for Obama and 48% for Romney. He confirmed that New Hampshire voters were getting serious:
As this race tightens, we’re used to New Hampshire only being important in the primary season but we’re looking at the general election now and we’re seeing that, electorally, the four votes from New Hampshire could count.
In 2008, Obama got 54% of the vote, McCain got 44.5%.
Not this time.
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