Wisconsin voters narrowly favor President Obama over Mitt Romney, despite the addition of native son Paul Ryan to the Republican ticket, according to a new CNN/ORC International poll released late on Thursday.
The ticket of Obama and Vice President Joe Biden leads Romney-Ryan, 49 percent to 45 percent, the poll shows. Four percent say they would vote for neither ticket, 1 percent prefer another, and 1 percent are undecided.
The poll is the first live-caller survey in the state released since Romney tapped Ryan last week. Its results prompted CNN to move Wisconsin into their "pure toss-up" category. Two other live-caller polls conducted the week prior to the Ryan choice showed Obama leading by 5 and 6 percentage points, respectively.
Men prefer the Romney-Ryan ticket by a 5-point margin, 50 percent to 45 percent. But female voters choose the Democratic ticket, 54 percent to 41 percent.
While there is little age gap overall -- voters under 50 choose the Democratic ticket by a 3-point margin, voters 50-plus by 4 points -- Romney has a slight edge among seniors, leading 50 percent to 42 percent among voters 65 and older. These seniors split 50-50 in 2008 between Obama and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
Ryan, a seven-term House member who is also chairman of the Budget Committee, is popular in his home state. Half of Wisconsinites have a favorable opinion of him, and just 32 percent view him unfavorably. But Badger State residents also have positive feelings about Obama, with 54 percent of adults in the state viewing him favorably, and 42 percent having an unfavorable opinion.
Ryan is a bigger draw in the state than Romney, whose favorable rating (45 percent) barely exceeds his unfavorables (42 percent).
Asked to rate Romney's choice of Ryan as his running mate, 31 percent say it is "excellent," while another 23 percent rate it as "pretty good." A combined 41 percent say Romney's choice is "only fair" or "poor."
The majority of Wisconsinites, 56 percent, think Ryan is qualified to serve as president if it becomes necessary, the poll shows.
The poll was conducted Aug. 13-14, surveying 1,005 adults, including a subsample of 920 registered voters for the ballot test. The margin of error for both samples is plus or minus 3 percentage points.
CORRECTION: This article originally gave an incorrect favorable rating for President Obama.