President George W Bush and Democratic senator Mr John Kerry are tied with two days remaining in a tense race for the White House, according to a Reuters/Zogby poll released on today.
Mr Kerry and Mr Bush were deadlocked at 48 per cent in the latest three-day national tracking poll, which included one day of polling taken after the airing of a videotape from Osama bin Laden. Mr Kerry led Mr Bush 47 - 46 per cent yesterday.
Only 2 per cent of voters remain undecided as the pair scour about 10 remaining battleground states to find the 270 electoral votes they need to win on Tuesday.
Mr Kerry had the lead on Saturday in six of 10 battleground states being polled separately, but Mr Bush expanded his lead to five percentage points in the showdown state of Ohio.
"Each man has consolidated his own base," pollster Mr John Zogby said.
"Bush has good leads in the red states, among investors, and among Republicans, born-again Christians, men and married voters.
"Kerry has a solid lead in the blue states and trumps Bush among young voters, African Americans, Hispanics, Democrats, women, union voters and singles."
Mr Bush
At this stage of the disputed 2000 election, Mr Bush led Mr Gore by two points in the daily tracking poll.
The poll of 1,207 likely voters was taken Thursday through Saturday and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points.
The national poll showed independent candidate Ralph Nader, blamed by some Democrats for drawing enough votes from Gore to cost him the election in 2000, with 1.2 per cent.
earned a positive job performance rating from 46 per cent and a negative rating from 53 per cent. The Massachusetts senator had a 51-41 per cent edge among newly registered voters - an unpredictable group that could be a wild card on Tuesday depending on how many turn out.