Things aren’t looking good for Portland residents who want to fluoridate the city’s water, at least according to the most recent KATU poll.

The poll, which was conducted by Survey USA and released just five days before the election, shows that 53 percent of likely voters are against fluoridating the water. Just 40 percent of likely voters are for the measure, while eight percent are still undecided.

Compared to an identical poll last week, the “no” votes are up five percent and the “yes” votes are up just one percent.

The fluoride measure gained support over the past week with affluent voters (people with incomes greater than $80,000 a year). In the most recent poll, 58 percent of affluent voters supported the measure and 37 percent opposed it.

Still, according to Survey USA, increasing opposition among people in other income groups offsets those gains.

There is also strong opposition to fluoride among people who have already returned ballots. Still, if turn-out is low then Survey USA warns that any outcome is possible.

Survey USA polled 602 voters they determined had already returned ballots or were likely to return ballots. The margin of error is +/- 4.1 percent.

Read the complete poll results, including breakdowns by age, race, political ideology and education level.

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