Poll Watch: USA Today/Gallup 2012 Swing States Presidential Survey

USA Today/Gallup 2012 Swing States Presidential Poll

• Mitt Romney 50% 
• Barack Obama 46%

Among Men

• Mitt Romney 54%
  
• Barack Obama 42%

Among Women

• Barack Obama 48%
• Mitt Romney 48%

Regardless of which candidate you support, who would do a better job handling each of these issues?

Deficit/Debt

• Mitt Romney 52%
  
• Barack Obama 43%

Unemployment

• Mitt Romney 48%
  
• Barack Obama 48%

Health care

• Barack Obama 49%
• Mitt Romney 47%
  

Defense/Terrorism

• Mitt Romney 48%
  
• Barack Obama 48%

Birth control policy

• Barack Obama 56%
• Mitt Romney 35%

(Among Men) What are the most important men's issues? 

• Jobs 38%
• Economy 37%
• Deficit/Balanced budget 10%
• Health care 10%
• Taxes 6%

(Among Women) What are the most important women's issues? 

• Abortion 39%
• Jobs 19%
  
• Health care 18%
• Economy 16%
• Equal rights/pay/opportunity 15%

Survey of 869 likely voters was conducted October 5-11, 2012 in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin. The margins of error are +/- 4-6 percentage points.

Inside the numbers:

Enthusiasm about voting has risen in both parties: 41% of Democrats and 45% of Republicans in the USA TODAY poll now say they are "extremely enthusiastic" about voting for president this year, a significant jump since June, before the conventions. Among women, the rise is particularly steep — perhaps reflecting the tendency among many women to tune into elections later than men.

The percentage of female registered voters who are extremely enthusiastic about voting has doubled since June and tripled from October 2011, when the first Swing States poll was taken. Women, who consistently had lagged men, are now more engaged: 41% of women and 35% of men report being extremely enthusiastic.

Among women, more Romney supporters are extremely enthusiastic than Obama supporters, 46% versus 38%. Married women, who tend to vote Republican, are more enthusiastic than unmarried women, who tend to vote Democratic.

The president's strongest issue by far, 56%-35%, is handling government policies concerning birth control, an issue in the news because of a requirement in the new health care law, the Affordable Care Act, that contraceptives be covered by insurance policies. Nearly a third of women call that issue extremely important to determining their vote, double the number of men who said so.