Likely the final public poll before Tuesday’s election came out today, sponsored by the Idaho Business Review and KTVB-TV, and it shows Democrat Jerry Brady leading Republican Butch Otter in the race for Idaho governor, 41-36 percent, with 20 percent still undecided, and Democrat Larry Grant leading Republican Bill Sali in the 1st District congressional race 38-34, with 25 percent undecided.

Greg Smith, president of Greg Smith & Associates, the Boise firm that conducted the statewide poll, said, “Many voters, who in other years would have a relatively clear picture of their likely voting behavior, are quite confused at this juncture because of the various charges and countercharges made by all four candidates.”

It should be noted that both results were within the margin of error of the poll – plus or minus 4.4 percent for the statewide results and 5.7 percent for the congressional district. The poll queried 499 likely voters statewide, 287 of those in the 1st Congressional District. So it shares a key result with the larger-sample Mason-Dixon poll released last Sunday that was sponsored by the Idaho Statesman and KIVI-TV – it shows the top races in Idaho to be statistical dead heats, too close to call just days before the election, and highly dependent on the decisions of the large number of undecided voters.

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