Poll shows Trump close, Toomey ahead in Pa.

A new poll shows Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump trailing Democrat Hillary Clinton by only 3 points in Pennsylvania, 46 to 43 percent.

The survey by Emerson College in Massachusetts was conducted through automated dialing rather than live interviews, and called only land lines.

The poll found Republican U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey leading Democratic challenger Katie McGinty by six points, 45 to 39 percent, with 10 percent undecided.

The presidential survey included Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson, who got 7 percent, and Green Party candidate Jill Stein, who got 2 percent.

When Pennsylvania voters were asked who they thought would win the presidential contest, they picked Clinton by a margin of 56 to 35 percent.

The results of the Emerson poll are encouraging to Republicans, since they show Trump within the margin of error of 3.4 percent.

The current Real Clear Politics polling average for Pennsylvania gives Clinton a lead of 8.3 percent.Four previous polls showed Clinton with double-digit leads, but those polls were all conducted at least two weeks ago. The Emerson survey was taken from Thursday through Sunday.

The poll also surveyed voters in Ohio, where it found Trump and Clinton tied at 43 percent, and in Michigan, where it found Clinton ahead, 45 to 40 percent.

Some pollsters are suspicious of “robocall” polls in which callers respond to recorded questions by entering answers on their telephone keypad.

The Five Thirty-Eight website, which evaluates polls, gives Emerson a grade of “B,” and notes that its results are on average about 1.3 percent more favorable to Republicans than other polls.