The Marist survey has come out with some numbers for the key battlegrounds, including Ohio. The race in Ohio is a dead heat, with a very slight edge overall for Obama. From the Marist poll:

It’s a Tossup: The race for the White House is a dead heat among registered voters in Ohio. 44% of the state’s registered voters say they support Senator Barack Obama — the same proportion who backs Senator John McCain. When likely Ohio voters, including those who are undecided yet leaning toward a candidate, are factored into the equation, Obama has 47% to McCain’s 45%. 90% of likely Democratic voters in the state say they support Obama. A similar proportion of likely Republican voters — 89% — report that they are behind their party’s candidate. Support among likely Independent voters is evenly split between the two candidates with each receiving 42%.

The registered party members are now strongly coalescing behind their candidates.

Regardless of whom they support, 81% of registered Ohio voters say they are strongly committed to their candidate. 82% of voters who are McCain supporters strongly support the GOP candidate while 79% of Obama backers are firmly behind him. Only a small percentage of both McCain’s and Obama’s supporters report they might change their vote by Election Day — 3% for McCain compared with 6% for Obama.

The closeness of the battleground states, if those numbers do not change, means that the ground operations of the two campaigns will essentially determine victory. A massive identification process followed by a monster effort to Get Out the Vote will be key for both parties. The Republicans have had, through the two Bush wins, a vastly superior ground game. That has changed to some degree, with the Obama folks pretty good at driving registrations through the roof. Can they now get these newly registered voters into the booths? The nuts and bolts will determine victory.