“The idea was to take the latest and greatest and update it on a daily basis,” said Nat Ehrlich, an IPPSR survey research specialist and the developer of the poll. “It allows us to say how many electoral college votes would each candidate get if the election was held today.”

According to the program, if the election were to happen today, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., would win the presidency with 306 electoral college votes. However, with states like Michigan still too close to call, the polls are not completely reliable.

“A year ago today, if you had to predict who would (be nominated), it would probably be Hillary Clinton versus Rudy Giuliani, so this has been a highly unpredictable race,” Ehrlich said. “You can only trust polls just so far.”

To identify battleground states, the program analyzes the margin of support between the two candidates against the number of undecided voters in each state.

If the number of undecided voters is at least double the point spread between candidates in a state, the state is called a battleground state, Ehrlich said.

According to the IPPSR program, Michigan is the biggest battleground state. Forty-three percent of individuals polled support Obama and 41 percent support Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., while 16 percent of respondents are undecided.

“That’s eight times the margin,” Ehrlich said.

The proportion of undecided voters nationwide has nearly doubled in the past month, indicating that voters are still far from being set on a candidate, Ehrlich said.

MSU journalism professor Fred Fico said while polling may be helpful to candidates in determining which states they concentrate campaign efforts, most voters don’t pay much attention to poll results this early in the race.

“They’re not really paying attention to the election really until after the conventions,” Fico said. “But political junkies love it.”

Criminal justice senior Quinton Brown said he has been following this year’s presidential campaign more than usual, but he has not paid attention to polls because public opinion could change by November.

“You can’t really tell what (the outcome) is going to be when it’s time for the election,” he said.

But despite the changes that could still happen before the November election, IPPSR Education Specialist Cynthia Kyle said she hopes citizens will show an interest in the program.

“This year there’s a lot of talk about the election, so we want to reach as broad an audience as we can,” Kyle said.

The program is expected to be unveiled on the institute’s Web site, www.ippsr.msu.edu, the week of the Aug. 5 statewide primary elections. Kyle said it will be updated weekly, and more frequently as the election draws nearer.