While most polls show a tight race between President Barack Obama and Republican candidate Mitt Romney, the results of a USA Today/Gallup poll released Monday show that a majority of Americans expect Obama to be re-elected.
The poll showed that 58 percent of Americans think Obama will win the election, while 36 percent think Romney will win. The numbers are virtually unchanged from May.
Gallup noted that Americans have generally been correct in predicting the winner of past presidential elections.
Obama supporters are more optimistic than Romney supporters, according to poll, with 86 percent of Obama supporters predicting that the president will be re-elected compared to 65 percent of Romney supporters that think the former Massachusetts Governor will win.
Eighty percent of Democrats and 58 percent of Independents expect Obama to win, while 60 percent of Republicans expect Romney to win.
Gallup managing editor Jeffrey Jones noted that a significantly higher percentage of Republicans say they will vote for Romney than believe he will be able to beat Obama.
"These partisan views on the part of Republicans that their candidate is the underdog could motivate them to campaign for their candidate and get out and vote, or could be discouraging and end up suppressing their vote," Jones said.
He added, "Similarly, Democrats' confidence that their candidate will win could encourage them to get out and vote to make sure that is a reality, or could cause complacency and lower their turnout percentage."
The USA Today/Gallup poll of 1,033 adults was conducted August 20th through 22nd and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
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