Greensboro, NC -- Swing state, battleground state - whatever you want to call it, to the politicians, North Carolina is a must-win state.
If the election was held today, Governor Mitt Romney would win....maybe.
That's according to a poll released Monday by Elon University. Elon polled 1,089 likely voters in North Carolina. Their report has a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
In a poll released by Public Policy Polling, President Barack Obama and Romney are tied.
Polls are useful because they help politicians decide which states they need to target and gauge how to campaign in certain states.
On the other hand, they represent such a small portion of the population that it's hard to tell how accurate they are.
According to the Elon poll, in North Carolina, top issues for voters are the economy, health care, and the deficit.
That means President Obama and Governor Romney are likely to tailor their campaigning to fit those concerns.
The same poll also had Romney ahead.
According to the poll, if the election were held today the GOP candidate would win by 4-percent over President Obama.
When it comes to who would better handle the economy, Romney wins again.
The voters polled favored Romney 52-percent to Obama's 39-percent.
On the flip side a poll done by Public Policy Polling shows 50-percent of voters say they disapprove of President Obama's job performance but 48-percent say they have an unfavorable opinion of Governor Romney.
Based on that poll, if the election were today, the two candidates would tie.
Here's where polls get complicated. Most of these polls talk to one-to-two thousand people max, and in North Carolina, there are more than 6.3 million people registered to vote.
The question is - how can a poll of a couple thousand people accurately represent a couple million people?
The answer really depends on who you ask.
WFMY News 2