Presidential Polls: Obama Ahead In 3 Heavily Contested Swing States

With the election five days away, U.S. President Barack Obama is ahead of GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney in the three heavily contested swing states of Iowa, New Hampshire and Wisconsin.

New NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist swing state polls released Thursday showed that as both campaigns are into the final stretch, Obama holds a 6-percentage point lead over Romney among likely voters in Iowa, 50 percent to 44 percent. This is a drop in his recent eight-point lead, however.

It is a much tighter race in New Hampshire and Wisconsin though, where the results are well within the margin of error. Obama narrowly edges out Romney 49 percent to 47 percent in New Hampshire and 49 percent to 46 percent in Wisconsin. The president was leading by 6 percentage points in Wisconsin and by 7 percentage points in New Hampshire last month.

The survey conducted between Oct. 28 and 29, before Hurricane Sandy battered the East Coast, found that the gender gap still persists. Obama still has a double-digit lead among women while Romney has the lead among men.

To give a picture of what this looks like: Among women, Obama is 16 points ahead in Iowa and New Hampshire, and had a 14-point advantage in Wisconsin. As for the men, Romney is enjoying a 4-point lead in Iowa, an 8-point advantage in Wisconsin, and 11 points in New Hampshire, according to NBC.

The president is also getting a boost from early voters in Iowa, where the poll indicated that 45 percent of respondents had already cast ballots, or intended to do so before Nov. 6. Among those voters Obama has a near 30-point advantage with his 62 percent to Romney’s 35 percent.