What Is the State of the Presidential Race Right Now?

Heading into the final weekend before Election Day on November 6, the race between President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney remains extremely close, with each man jumping from battleground state to battleground state trying to persuade any remaining undecided voters and ensure higher turnout of his core supporters.

Hurricane Sandy and its aftermath took Obama and Romney off the campaign trail for a few days earlier this week, but things are back in full swing now. Today, Obama is in Ohio and Romney visits Wisconsin—two swing states that can expect to see quite a bit of the candidates in these last few days.

A look at recent polling tells the story of a close race, but one that can be a bit confusing. Nationally, the race is too close to call, with each candidate hitting around 47-48 percent. Here’s a look some of the poll-aggregation sites, which compile and average all the recent national polling results:

• Real Clear Politics: Obama 47.5, Romney 47.2—Obama +0.3
• Huffington Post Pollster: Obama 47.2, Romney 47.3—Romney +0.1 (the chart above changes as new polls are added)
• Talking Points Memo: Obama 47.7, Romney 46.8—Obama +0.9

The battleground states show a similarly close race. This year the most important state to watch is probably Ohio, where Obama currently holds a lead of about 2.4 points. While not certain, whoever wins the Buckeye State's 18 electoral votes will likely also claim the presidency. Therefore, residents will be seeing an awful lot of Obama, Romney and the vice-presidential candidates, Joe Biden and Paul Ryan.

The following states will be the most highly contested as the race reaches its final stages (all averages are from The New York Times' FiveThirtyEight blog):

• Colorado: Obama 48.1, Romney 46.9—Obama +1.2
• Florida: Obama 47.5, Romney 48.0—Romney +0.5
• Iowa: Obama 49.1, Romney 46.1—Obama +3.0
• Nevada: Obama 49.5, Romney 46.0—Obama +3.5
• New Hampshire: Obama 48.6, Romney 46.1—Obama +2.5
• North Carolina: Obama 46.4, Romney 48.4—Romney +2.0
• Ohio: Obama 48.2, Romney 45.8—Obama +2.4
• Virginia: Obama 47.8, Romney 46.9—Obama +0.9