Poll: Third-party protest vote goes up to 11 in North Carolina Senate race

The latest poll from North Carolina, fresh off of last week's Republican primary, shows a dead heat in the state's U.S. Senate race between Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan and her GOP challenger, state House Speaker Thom Tillis.

The survey by Democratic-aligned Public Policy Polling shows Hagan with 38 percent support, Tillis at 36 percent — and Libertarian nominee Sean Haugh with an unusually high 11 percent, plus another 15 percent who are undecided. In fact, both major candidates being highly unpopular; Hagan's job rating stands at just 38 percent approval to 49 percent disapproval, while Tillis' personal rating is an even worse 30 percent favorable to 46 percent unfavorable.

Moreover, a follow-up question asked Haugh's supporters whether they would lean toward Hagan or Tillis — and found yet another split of 41 percent for Hagan against 41 percent for Tillis.

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The pollster's analysis also finds that undecided voters previously voted for President Obama in 2012 by an 18-point margin — contrary to many other races throughout the country, in which undecided voters have been leaning Republican. "That makes it likely this race will remain within a couple points one way or the other moving forward."

The poll was conducted from May 9 to May 11, and has a 3.3 percent margin of error.