Poll: Dead heat in U.S. presidential race

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NEW YORK, Oct. 21 (UPI) -- President Obama and Mitt Romney are neck-and-neck as they head down the stretch in the U.S. presidential race, a new poll indicated Sunday.

The Wall Street Journal/NBC News survey gave both candidates 47 percent of the vote on the eve of their final debate on Monday.

The same poll late last month pegged Obama 3 percentage points ahead of the Republican challenger.

The Journal said Romney appeared to be picking up some momentum from the past two debates. With only 5 percent of the electorate still undecided, the campaigns will likely switch to overdrive on the state level for the final two weeks of the campaign.

A closer look at the numbers revealed Romney with 53 percent of the male vote compared to 43 percent for Obama. The president leads among women with 51 percent to Romney's 43 percent.

The poll was conducted Oct. 17-20 among 816 likely voters. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.43 percentage points.