Polls: Obama Leads Romney in Key Swing States

President Barack Obama leads presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney in three key swing states, according to Quinnipiac polls released today.  

According to the polls, Obama edges Romney in Florida (45 percent to 41 percent), Ohio (47 percent to 38 percent) and Pennsylvania (45 percent to 39 percent). Since 1960, no president has been elected without carrying at least two of these states. 

Obama's recent announcement that in some cases children of illegal immigrants are exempt from deportation seems to have played a role in the polls, according to Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. 

"In Florida, on the heels of the president's order that will prevent the deportation of some younger illegal immigrants, he holds a big lead among Hispanic voters," Brown said.

Though the president is leading in the polls among voters in those states, his stance on immigration seems to have motivated the opposition more than those in favor of his policy, The Washington Post reports. When asked if Obama's policy made them more likely or less likely to support the president, voters in all three states replied negatively: Ohio (27 percent to 11 percent), Pennsylvania (27 percent to 12 percent) and Florida (22 percent to 17 percent).

According to The Post, blue collar voters in Pennsylvania and Ohio might be turned off by Obama's immigration stance, which is purportedly designed to influence voters in Arizona, Colorado and Nevada.