President Obama's strongest backing is among voters between 18 and 29 years old, while Mitt Romney does best among those 70 and older, a new Gallup Poll shows.
Obama had 56 percent support to Romney's 35 percent among younger voters--the president's highest showing across all age groups. Meanwhile, Romney led Obama 53 percent to 39 percent among those over 70, the highest level of backing for the presumptive GOP nominee.
The race is most competitive among voters between ages 50 and 59, who slightly favor Romney by 47 percent to 44 percent. Those aged 40 to 49 and 60 to 69 support Romney by slightly larger 7-point margins.
The impact of age on voting preferences is driven almost entirely by differences among non-Hispanic whites, with age making little difference in the preferences among nonwhites, the poll found.
The results are based on telephone interviews conducted as part of Gallup's daily tracking poll between April 11 and May 16 among a random sample of 15,605 registered voters. The margin of error is plus or minus 1 percentage point, although it is higher among age and race subgroups, depending on the sample size.