Following Second Debate, Obama and Romney in Dead Heat Among Registered Voters in Virginia, According to New CallFire Poll

Among Likely Voters, Romney Has 2 Point Edge

RICHMOND, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--According to a new CallFire poll in the crucial swing state of Virginia, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are tied among registered voters at 47 percent apiece. Among “likely” voters, the Republican challenger holds a 48 percent to 46 percent edge over the president.

“Do you think you are personally better off today than you were at the end of George W. Bush’s term?”

The poll, conducted following this week’s second presidential debate via cell phones and landlines, reached out to 837 registered voters and 624 self-described “likely” voters throughout the state. Of the total sample, 30 percent of “likely” voters identified with the Democratic Party, 31 percent with the Republican Party, and 38 percent listed themselves as “independent.” Among registered voters, 31 percent identified with the Democratic Party, 31 percent with the G.O.P. and 38 percent with a third party. The margin of error among registered voters is +/- 3.1 percent; among likely voters, the margin is +/- 3.4 percent.

Using SmartVAN data and CallFire telephone services, the poll builds on the recent partnership between CallFire and NGP VAN that provides state-of-the-art voice broadcast and automated survey functionality to Democrats and progressives. CallFire (callfire.com), a leader in voice and text communication solutions that help companies and organizations grow, teamed with NGP VAN (ngpvan.com), the technology provider used by virtually every Democratic candidate and progressive organization conducting a field campaign, including President Obama’s organization.

In addition to the overarching question of presidential preference by the sample population, the CallFire poll probed various issues and attitudes among Virginia voters:

• When asked which candidate would be better for women’s issues, 56 percent of “likely voters” said President Obama while 30 percent named Gov. Romney.
• When asked which candidate would be better in a crisis situation, 52 percent of “likely voters” named Obama, versus 40 percent for Romney.
• When asked, “Do you think you are personally better off today than you were at the end of George W. Bush’s term?” 40 percent of “likely” voters answered “better off” and 45 percent answered “worse.” Among registered voters, 41 percent responded “better off,” while 44 percent answered “worse.”
• When asked to assess responsibility for “being obstructive to the economic recovery,” registered voters and “likely” voters agreed, albeit by differing margins. Some 39 percent of “likely” voters put the onus on “Republicans in Congress,” while 38 percent blamed the Obama Administration. Among registered voters, 42 percent cited congressional Republicans, 40 percent the Administration.

As the campaign enters its final month, candidates and issue campaigns across the U.S. are using the CallFire platform, now fully integrated to provide reliable, affordable voice communications and constituent outreach. These campaigns are currently conducting voter identification and persuasion, grassroots fundraising, rally crowd building, volunteer recruitment, get out the vote (GOTV), and other activities.

In addition to fueling campaign outreach to voters across the U.S. and in the key swing states, such as Virginia, CallFire is conducting a series of surveys during October. These surveys measure voter pulse points and offer a broader “voice” to the public through CallFire’s telephony-based communications that are helping to “democratize” and mobilize American voters in an entirely new way.

“In partnership with NGP VAN and using its field survey tools, CallFire is now able to obtain salient data and voter feedback about political races at the national, state and local levels, including the presidential election,” said Dinesh Ravishanker, CEO of CallFire.

Seated at the intersection of technology and politics, these telephony-driven voter surveys are a part of the spectrum of offerings from CallFire and NGP VAN. But they represent just a fraction of the grassroots juggernaut in play this fall. Through its state-of the art telephony-based voice and text communications services, CallFire is able to offer the same voter outreach tools, available to the Obama campaign, to thousands of other national, state and local campaigns.

Some 1,700 local and state candidate and issue-oriented political campaigns have used the CallFire platform since the company’s founding in 2007.

About CallFire
Based in Santa Monica, Calif., CallFire (callfire.com) simplifies telephony, making sophisticated, expensive carrier class telecom capabilities available through an affordable, easy-to-use GUI and API platform. Any business, from start-up to enterprise, can reach its customers on any device, over voice or text, using CallFire’s massively scalable, cloud telecom platform. CallFire products include Voice APIs, Business Text Messaging, Voice Broadcast, Local Phone Numbers, Call Tracking, IVR, Power Dialing for agents and more. Call analytics enable CallFire’s 50,000 users to reach customers more often using text marketing, virtual numbers, auto dialers and mobile messaging.