Polls Find Clinton With Bare Majority

Two national tracking polls released Friday found President Clinton maintaining a bare majority among likely voters as the 1996 campaign nears an end. The surveys differed on how badly Republican challenger Bob Dole was trailing.

In the ABC News survey, 51 percent said they would vote for Clinton if the election were today, 40 percent for Dole and 7 percent for Ross Perot of the Reform Party.

The Gallup poll for CNN and USA Today had the race Clinton 52, Dole 34, Perot 10.

The Dole campaign on Friday was touting another national tracking poll that suggested a closer race. The survey by the John Zogby Group for the Reuters news agency had Clinton at 42 percent, Dole 37 percent and Perot 8 percent in an average of sampling Tuesday through Thursday.