The 2012 race for presidency is presenting a close call for President Barack Obama and his rival Mitt Romney - the race between the two candidates is the closest in 76 years, according to polling data going back to 1936.

An election this close based on polling results has not happened since the mid-1930s, when "scientific methods" were first used to project a presidential winner based on sampling techniques, according to Yahoo. As of Monday, RealClearPolitics consensus data showed Obama with a slim 0.4 percent lead in the popular vote, and Gallup's latest swing-state poll showed the two candidates tied at 48 percent.  

CNBC made a comparison that the Obama vs. Romney race is very similar to pass presidential elections. In 1960, when John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon went head-to-head to win the White House, the votes was also one of the closest in history. Kennedy won by only 113,000 more votes than Nixon and one report at that time came out with the headline "Was Nixon Robbed?" to poke fun at the closeness of the election. Kennedy also, like Romney, was believed to have won the first presidential debate because of his confident demeanor. 

Perhaps one election that can not be forgotten as one of the closest presidential races ever in the United States, was the 2000 George Bush vs. Al Gore match-up. The race ended with the Supreme Court having to intervene to settle the dispute over who won the election. 

"While Gore garnered a 500,000 vote lead, Florida - the deciding state - was far too close to call, with just 500 votes separating the two candidates," the news report stated. "Though Gore had won the popular vote, the conservative-leaning Supreme Court stopped the Florida recounts, granting Bush the presidency."

Bush won by only five electoral votes, 271 to 266.

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