Bush, Gore Near Even in Post Tracking Poll
By Richard Morin and Claudia Deane
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday , October 23, 2000
Vice President Gore has pulled into a virtual tie with Gov. George W. Bush on the strength of increased support among independent women and voters in the key battleground states of the Midwest, according to The Washington Post daily tracking poll.
The latest survey found Bush leading Gore by 47 percent to 46 percent among likely voters, well within the survey's margin of sampling error and the first time Gore has been this close to his Republican rival in more than two weeks.
Green Party candidate Ralph Nader received 4 percent of the hypothetical vote, and Pat Buchanan of the Reform Party got 1 percent.
The latest results mark another and perhaps temporary change in the direction of this persistently volatile race. It largely came over the weekend, as Gore significantly improved his standing with women, independents, middle-aged voters, Democrats who only weakly identify with their party, and voters in the Midwest and in the west.
Gore now claims 53 percent of the vote from women who say they're politically independent. That's an 11-point increase from a Post tracking poll completed Thursday, which found these voters about evenly divided between the two major party candidates. Bush currently gets the support of 35 percent of independent women, down from 44 percent last week.
Other big moves for Gore: In recent days, the survey suggests he has picked up six points among independents who lean toward the Democratic Party; six points among voters in the Midwest, five points among voters in the west and seven points among voters between the ages of 45 and 60.
The news is not all bad for Bush. The survey suggests he has gained eight points among likely voters older than 60, and now leads Gore 49 percent to 42 percent among these voters. But among virtually every other key voter group, the Republican hasn't moved or appears to have lost ground in the past week.
A total of 1,427 likely voters were interviewed Thursday through Sunday. Margin of sampling error for the overall results was plus or minus 3 percentage points.
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