With only days to go until the 2012 presidential election, the latest national polls indicate President Barack Obama, Democrat, and Mitt Romney, Republican, are virtually deadlocked going into the last weekend of the campaign.

In the most recent Rasmussen national poll of likely voters, released Friday, the candidates were tied with each having 48 percent of the popular vote. One percent prefers other candidates and 3 percent are undecided. The most recent polling data in Virginia shows Romney slightly ahead with 50 percent, while Obama earned 47 percent and 1 percent still are undecided.

In other key swing states, Romney leads in Florida 50 percent to 48 percent, and in both Ohio and Wisconsin the two candidates are tied at 49 percent.

Rasmussen’s projection of the Electoral College vote, which requires 270 votes to win the election, shows Obama with 237 electoral votes and Romney with 206. The eight states comprising the final 95 electoral votes all are considered to be a toss-up. The Electoral College assigns each state a certain number of votes based on the states population. The winner of that state receives all or part of its Electoral College votes. The outcome of the Electoral College vote, not the popular vote, determines the winner of the presidential election.

The Virginia senatorial campaign is also in a statistical dead heat. Vying for the seat being vacated by Democrat Jim Webb are Democrat Tim Kaine, the former Richmond mayor and Virginia governor, leads another former Virginia governor Republican George Allen 49 percent to 48 percent. Allen is seeking to regain the seat he lost to Webb in 2006.