Dems, GOP in dead heat according to generic ballot

Registered voters are split over whether they will vote for a Republican or a Democrat in the November midterm elections, the latest Gallup generic ballot poll shows.

The survey released Monday shows Democrats and the GOP in a 46-46 percent tie among those asked what party's candidate they would vote for on Nov. 2. 

The results of Gallup's generic ballot, a key bellwether of congressional elections, has shown consistent results the past two weeks after the advantage flipped between Republicans and Democrats. Last week, both parties we locked in a statistical tie but the week before that Republicans opened up a 5-point lead after falling into its first tie with the Democrats in six weeks ago. The week before the previous tie, the GOP held a 10-point advantage over the Democrats, a lead Gallup called "unprecedented."

But Gallup's pollsters point to other metrics, such as voter enthusiasm and President Obama's job approval, as signs that the GOP holds the upper hand going into November.

48 percent of Republicans said they were "very enthusiastic" about going to the polls opposed to 28 percent of Democrats who said the same. Obama's job approval rating is below 50 percent: 44 percent approve of his work as commander-in-chief.

"This is not an auspicious sign for Democrats, because history shows that presidents who have sub-50 percent approval ratings prior to midterm elections generally see their parties suffer large congressional seat losses," Gallup's pollsters wrote.

The poll showed broad dissatisfaction with Congress -- only 18 percent approved of the job Congress is doing, the lowest number before any midterm since 1974, Gallup said.

Gallup surveyed 3,148 registered voters from Sept. 20-26 and the poll has a margin of error of 2 percentage points.