SurveyUSA poll: Georgia races still tied

A new poll by SurveyUSA for 11Alive News shows two most competitive 2014 races in Georgia in a statistical tie; Goveor Nathan Deal (R) is leading state Sen. Jason Carter (D) 46 percent to 44 in the gubeatorial race, and David Perdue (R) is ahead of Michelle Nunn (D) 46 percent to 45 in the U.S. Senate race.

SurveyUSA has not yet released the tabs for the poll, or the dates when the data was collected. This pollster usually collects over a three-day period, so the poll is not measuring the effects of Tuesday’s debates.

In the gubeatorial race, Libertarian Andrew Hunt receives 4 percent of the vote and 7 percent are still undecided. In the Senate race, Libertarian Amanda Swafford gets 3 percent of support and 6 percent are undecided. The margin of error for both polls is +/- 4.2 percent.

The results of the survey are pretty consistent with most other polls that put Republicans just slightly ahead of Democrats, but usually within the margin of error.  Also, runoffs in both races are very possible, since none of the candidates appear to be near the 50 percent mark, less than four weeks ahead of the Nov. 4^th Election Day.

Runoffs mean more trouble for the Democratic candidates. Libertarians are out of the race in the runoff, and their voters usually cross over to Republicans. While clearly the two contests are going to be close, Democrats need outstanding tuout in both the general election and especially in the runoffs to pull off a win.