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President Barack Obama was favored by at least 50 percent of likely voters in the key battleground states of Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania, a poll released Wednesday shows.

Obama had a lead of 11 percentage points, 53 percent to 42 percent, over presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney in Pennsylvania. The president leads his GOP challenger by a margin of 51 percent to 45 percent in Florida and 50 percent to 44 percent in Ohio in the random telephone poll conducted July 24 to 30 by Quinnipiac University, CBS News and the New York Times. It was the first measure of likely voters in the crucial swing states.

"If today were Nov. 6, President Barack Obama would sweep the key swing states," said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. "The president is running better in the key swing states than he is nationally."

About three of every five voters in the three crucial states said they supported Obama's proposal to increase taxes on households making more than $250,000 annually. The president also received broad support among women where he leads Romney by 24 percentage points in Pennsylvania and 21 in Ohio and 7 percentage points in Florida

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