McCain 50, Obama 45

John McCain retains a narrow lead in North Carolina.

In a recent poll by Survey USA, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee received 50 percent support and Democratic nominee Barack Obama received 45 percent. Two percent chose "Other" and three percent were undecided.

The pollsters say a shift has occured in independent voters since it's previous poll eight weeks ago. Then McCain led by nine points among the 15 percent of likely voters who identified as independent, but now Obama leads by two points.

Other recent polls show McCain with a similar lead, including ones by Democratic firm Public Policy Polling, the conservative Civitas Institute and Rasmussen Reports.

The poll of 676 likely registered voters was taken July 12 through July 14. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.