Biden, Sanders neck and neck in New Hampshire: poll

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and former Vice President Joe Biden are neck and neck in New Hampshire ahead of the state’s primary next week, according to a new University of Massachusetts Lowell poll.

Twenty-three percent of likely Democratic New Hampshire primary voters said they supported Sanders, while 22 percent said they were behind Biden. The two are within the survey’s margin of error.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), meanwhile, trailed by only 4 points, coming in at 19 percent support.

Former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) rounded out the top five contenders at 12 and 6 percent support, respectively.

New Hampshire, whose primary is not fully closed, can be difficult to poll because of the uncertainty about how many undeclared voters will turn out for the Democratic primary.

The state has 413,000 undeclared voters, 288,000 registered Republicans and 275,000 registered Democrats.

The survey comes eight days ahead of the nation’s first Democratic primary in New Hampshire and hours before the Iowa caucuses on Monday.

A number of recent national polls show Biden and Sanders emerging as Democratic primary voters’ top picks.

An NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll released Friday showed Sanders at 27 percent support nationally, while Biden was close behind at 26 percent support.

The University of Massachusetts Lowell survey was conducted from Jan. 28 to Jan. 31 among 400 likely New Hampshire Democratic primary voters. The margin of error is plus or minus 6.4 percentage points.