Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama holds a narrow lead over Republican John McCain in a Concord Monitor poll of likely New Hampshire voters. In the telephone poll, conducted this week by Research 2000, 48 percent of those surveyed supported Obama and his running mate, Joe Biden; 44 percent supported McCain and his running mate, Sarah Palin; 3 percent chose someone else; and 5 percent said they were undecided.

The poll results suggest significant differences between the way the candidates are viewed by men and women and by residents of the state's two congressional districts. Men preferred McCain by 49 percent to 44 percent; women preferred Obama by 52 percent to 39 percent. Voters in the 1st District preferred McCain by 51 percent to 41 percent; voters in the 2nd District, which includes Concord, preferred Obama by 55 percent to 37 percent.

Look for more results from the poll, including in the races for U.S. Senate, U.S. House and governor, in Friday's Concord Monitor.

Methodology

The poll was conducted by Research 2000 of Rockville, Md., from Sept. 22-24. A total of 600 likely voters who vote regularly in state elections were interviewed statewide by telephone. Those interviewed were selected by the random variation of the last four digits of telephone numbers. A cross-section of exchanges was utilized in order to ensure an accurate reflection of the state. Quotas were assigned to reflect the voter registration of distribution by county.

The margin for error, according to standards customarily used by statisticians, is no more than plus or minus 4 percentage points. This means that there is a 95 percent probability that the “true” figure would fall within that range if the entire population were sampled. The margin for error is higher for any subgroup, such as for gender or party affiliation.

SAMPLE FIGURE:

Men 288 (48%)
Women 312 (52%)

Democrats 186 (31%)
Republicans 180 (30%)
Independents/Other 234 (39%)