Washington: A new study has shown that a good many Asian Americans are supporting Senator Barack Obama in the November 4 showdown but at the same time a sizeable population is undecided leading to the conclusion that the large voter group is under scrutiny of the two campaigns.

Given the tight races being predicted in battleground states such as Florida, Colorado and Ohio, the Asian American voters may just tip the balance, it is being pointed out.

The study was conducted by four leading universities -- Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey; University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley); University of California, Riverside (UC Riverside); and University of Southern California (USC).

The recent National Asian American Survey (NAAS) shows that 41 per cent of Asian Americans are likely to favour Obama while 24 per cent support John McCain.

In battleground states, where either candidate could win on election day, Obama leads with 43 per cent support of the Asians against 22 per cent favouring McCain, according to a statement posted by WebWire.

Researchers point out that a key finding of the study is the high proportion of 34 per cent undecided Asian voters. The multi-ethnic, multi-lingual survey of more than 4,000 Asian Americans likely to vote in the election was conducted from August 18 to September 26.

It is the most comprehensive survey to date of the political views of the community with interviews conducted in English, Cantonese, Mandarin, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Tagalog and Vietnamese.
Source : PTI