Ohio voters, wrong only twice when picking the president in the last 108 years, remain nearly split over their choice for the White House, according to a new Dayton Daily News /Ohio Newspaper Poll.

But while the race remains a statistical dead-heat, more voters are siding with Democrat Barack Obama, who has erased Republican John McCain's previous lead in the Buckeye State and now holds a 3-point advantage, 49 percent to 46 percent.

The poll, when compared to the two previous Ohio Newspaper Polls, suggests that the Illinois senator has momentum on his side.

The latest poll of 886 likely voters, conducted Oct. 18-22, also asked Ohioans their views on the Iraq war and national security, issues where McCain holds an advantage. But with the economic crisis eclipsing all other issues, especially in Ohio, Obama has been able to keep the race focused on pocketbook issues, to his benefit.

The poll shows that support for Obama has increased by 7 percentage points since the first poll was taken in mid-September. McCain's support has declined by 2 percentage points since then, and he has lost ground with white voters and with men.

The polls were conducted by the Institute for Policy Research at the University of Cincinnati and have a margin of error of 3.3 percent.

Eric Rademacher, interim co-director of the institute, says Obama has an edge, but the highly charged race and partisan electorate make the contest unpredictable.

"It is very possible that 2008 could be a repeat of 2004 when the race for Ohio was decided by just two percentage points," he said.

The campaign in Ohio, which has been marked by negative television advertising and harsh rhetoric, is also potentially volatile because 11 percent of voters surveyed said they might change their minds. Just 3 percent remain undecided.

Both campaigns and special interest groups are trying to sway these voters by flooding them with last-minute negative messages.

The Ohio Republican Party, for instance, mailed a flier this week that misrepresents his relationship to William Ayers, a one-time member of the Weather Underground, an anti-government group responsible for bombings in the 1970s, including one at the Pentagon.

"This is the story of William Ayers ... Terrorist. Radical. Friend of Obama," the four-page flier reads on the front. Another one from the party attacks Obama for his support of gun-control bills, though the flier fails to give his complete position on the issue.

A Democratic leaning special interest group, Bring Ohio Back, sent voters a flier featuring a picture of a battered woman and including the false charge that McCain doesn't support certain women's issues and the Violence Against Women Act.

"Those kind of messages are really a target for undecided people and those who might change their mind," Rademacher says.

When a voter gets in the voting booth, says Rademacher, these messages could trigger "a second thought."

Undecided voter Diana Schneider of Grove City said her decision will come down to the candidates' positions on two issues: the economy and immigration.

"I'll support the one who will do more to bring the economy back where it was at," said Schneider, 60, a retired federal employee. "Until we can get up on our feet and stop shipping our jobs overseas, we need to get people back to work before letting more foreigners in the country."

Throughout the campaign, Obama has argued that McCain, an Arizona senator, will continue the "failed economic policies of President Bush" while Obama will provide relief to the middle class. Obama also has attacked McCain's health-care plan, especially in television ads.

McCain, meanwhile, charges that Obama's tax plan will hurt small business owners. More recently McCain has attacked his rival's plan to raise taxes on the wealthy as tantamount to socialism.

Delores Balogh, a 71-year-old retiree from Struthers, outside Youngstown, says she's voting for Obama because she has connected with his economic plan.

"McCain hasn't mentioned anything about our jobs that have been shipped overseas," she said. "I think Obama is intelligent and is focused on things like hospitalization."

A large part of McCain's candidacy has been his national security experience, reflected in his ads as well as his campaign's theme, "country first." And the latest Ohio Newspaper Poll shows he has a advantage on the issue.

One of every two voters believes McCain will do better job in dealing with the situation in Iraq, according to the poll. And by a wide margin — 52 percent to 39 percent — voters say they believe McCain will do the best job protecting the country from future terrorist attacks.

Stay-at-home mom Angela Roehrenbeck, 42, of Canal Winchester, says McCain is the clear choice on national security.

"I like the fact that he fought for our country and that he has a record we can see and he has experience," she said.

The electorate in Ohio, though, remains conflicted by the war in Iraq. A majority say the decision to go to war was wrong. But more voters — 37 percent — say the war has made the United States safer than the 23 percent who say it has made us less safe. Thirty-eight percent said the war made no difference in the country's safety.

Voters break along party lines on the question of whether the next president should set a specific timetable to withdraw from Iraq. Overall, 52 percent of voters do not support setting a timetable.

McCain's hard-line Iraq war policy turned off Democrat Drew Abbott, 46, a Cincinnati restaurant owner, small-scale real estate developer and self-described former independent voter.

"I think he is wedded to the concept of our winning," Abbott said. "He thinks we are going to win it. We are not."

Abbott, who has spent a lot of time in Europe, says he is dismayed "at how the world looks at us." During a recent business trip to London, an Iraqi physician asked him, "Why have you destroyed my country?"

"I said, 'I don't know,' and 'I'm sorry,'" Abbott recalled.

Roehrenbeck, however, feels the U.S. is winning in Iraq. She worries that success in Iraq is being overshadowed by the economy, and McCain needs to stay on that message.

"People always want money in their pockets," she said. "I do think McCain needs to hit home on the economics because that's where people's hearts are right now. People do need to look. Obama will raise taxes."

The poll also asked voters about immigration, which was a hot topic during the Republican primaries but has received virtually no attention from candidates in the general election.

Fifty-six percent of voters said the United Sates should allow illegal immigrants to remain in the U.S. to work for a limited time; 27 percent said they should be deported. Only 15 percent said illegal immigrants should be allowed to become U.S. citizens.