Poll: Ohio working class election key?

COLUMBUS, Ohio, Oct. 31 (UPI) -- Working-class voters in Ohio may offer a key to President Obama's re-election bid, a poll by Quinnipiac University, The New York Times and CBS News indicated.

In Ohio, with 18 electoral votes up for grabs, Obama runs nearly even with Republican rival Mitt Romney among white voters who don't have college degrees, results released Wednesday indicated.

That slice of information may explain why Obama could be slightly better positioned in Ohio than in Florida and Virginia, where the polls indicate Romney has a 30 percentage point advantage among white voters without college degrees, the Times said.

Obama, who has a 50 percent-to-45 percent edge in Ohio over Romney, also may be benefiting from an improved economy in the Buckeye State, results indicated.

In terms of demographics, the poll indicated nearly half of all white voters without college degrees in Ohio say the economy is improving, and most give the president some credit. By comparison, only about 25 percent of voters in Virginia and Florida said their economy was improving.

In Florida, Obama holds a negligible 48 percent-to-47 percent lead over Romney. In Virginia, Obama has 49 percent support while Romney has 47 percent

The latest polls included 3,682 telephone interviews conducted Oct. 23-28 with adult residents of Florida, Ohio and Virginia, of which 3,394 said they were registered to vote. Results are based on 1,073 likely voters in Florida, 1,110 likely voters in Ohio and 1,074 likely voters in Virginia. The results in each state have a margin of sampling error of 3 percentage points.