PROVIDENCE -- Two polls released yesterday show that Rhode Island's U.S. Senate race is a dead heat.

The first poll, conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling and Research, gives the incumbent Lincoln Chafee a narrow lead: 46 percent to 45 percent. The national pollster surveyed 625 registered voters by phone from Oct. 31 to Nov. 2. The margin of error is 4 percentage points.

And a separate Gallup poll gives Whitehouse a 3-point edge -- 48 percent to 45 percent. Gallup polled 880 registered voters between Nov. 1 to Nov. 3 by phone. Like Mason-Dixon, the margin of error is 4 points -- meaning that each of the results is within the margin of error and the leads are statistically insignificant.

-- Projo.com staff writer Steve Peoples