With approximately 48 hours before the first polls of the 2012 presidential election closes, the latest numbers from the Pew Research Center shows some good news for the incumbent.
President Barack Obama has been facing tighter competition in recent months leading to Election Day, but according to Pew, he is leading, nationally, by three percentage points.
The poll, conducted between Oct. 31 to Nov. 3, shows Obama with 48 percent to former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney's 45 percent among the 2,709 likely voters.
According to Pew, "The survey finds that Obama maintains his modest lead when the probable decisions of undecided voters are taken into account."
When the undecided voters are taken into account, Obama maintains the three percent advantage but increases to 50 percent compared to Romney's 47 percent.
The numbers are good news for Obama because the previous Pew poll, conducted from Oct. 24 to Oct. 28, featured a tie between the two candidates are 47 percent.
The news isn't good for Romney as even before the 47 percent tie, Romney led the Pew poll taken on Oct. 4 to Oct. 7 with 49 percent to Obama's 45 percent.
Pew noted Obama's handling of Hurricane Sandy might have led to his better polling numbers as 69 percent stated they approved of the way he handled the storm's impact.
"There are many good signs in the poll for Obama," stated Pew. He has regained much of the ground he lost following his lackluster performance in the first presidential debate. In mid-September, Obama led Romney by eight points among likely voters, but in early October, shortly after the debate, he trailed by four points."
A total of 3,815 adults participated in the survey with 3,151 being registered voters but 2,709 are likely to vote come Election Day.
The margin of error for the Pew poll is 2.2 percent, smaller compared to their Oct. 24-Oct. 28 poll which had a 2.9 percent as the margin of error.