Clinton surges in NH poll but Sanders still leads by 17 percent

WASHINGTON, Feb. 7 (UPI) -- Bernie Sanders continues to lead the polls in New Hampshire as Hillary Clinton chipped away his 2-to-1 margin ahead of this week's primary.

In the latest poll by the University of Massachusetts and 7News, Sanders leads with 57 percent of support of likely voters to Clinton's 40 percent. Over the course of the tracking poll, Clinton jumped 10 points -- from 30 percent of support on Feb. 1 to 40 percent on Feb. 7. Sanders dropped from 61 percent to 57 percent during the same period.

The number of undecided voters and voters choosing candidates other than Sanders and Clinton has decreased from 8 percent to 2 percent. Martin O'Malley ended hi campaign after not reaching 1 percent in the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 1. His name was not included in the UMass poll starting on Feb. 2.

The poll has a margin of error of 5.2 percent and was taken from a sample of 428 likely voters in the New Hampshire primary.

During an interview on CNN, Clinton said she realizes she's behind but is in "very good spirits."

"I don't know what's going to happen. I know I'm behind. I'm in very good spirits about that because I love the process," Clinton told State of the Union host Jake Tapper.