President Obama, Mitt Romney in virtual tie nationally and in swing states, according to polls

By Callum Borchers, Globe Correspondent

President Obama and Mitt Romney are locked in a virtual dead heat nationally and in swing states, according to the latest round of polling.

A new NPR survey shows the president leading his Republican challenger, 47 percent to 45 percent, but the 2-point margin is within the poll’s margin of error. The NPR poll also shows an exact tie, 46-46, in battleground states.

The results from NPR are consistent with those of a CBS News/New York Times poll published late Wednesday that showed Romney with a 1-point edge over the president -- within that survey’s margin of error -- and last week’s Washington Post/ABC News poll that showed the candidates tied at 47 percent apiece.

A poll released Thursday by Quinnipiac University showed Romney and Obama even in the swing state of Virginia, at 44 percent each. Last month, Obama led by 5 points in Virginia, according to Quinnipiac.

A Gallup poll published Wednesday showed 69 percent of Americans are “dissatisfied with the way things are going in the United States at this time.” But, Gallup noted, the dissatisfaction measure had not been under 70 percent since 2009.

The Gallup survey of 1,014 adults was conducted between July 9 and 12 and has a margin of error of 4 percentage points. Quinnipiac polled 1,673 registered voters in Virginia between July 10 and 16 and reported a margin of error of 2.4 points.

NPR’s poll was conducted by North Star Opinion Research and included 1,000 likely voters surveyed between July 9 and 12. Its margin of error is 3.1 points. The battleground states polled were Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin.