Rob Ford might have thought it would be easy to slip back into his old Ward 2 council seat, but it appears his closest rival, Andray Domise, is making up ground, possibly even leading, in the race to succeed incumbent Doug Ford.

An internal poll conducted by the Domise campaign earlier this month put their candidate on 53 percent, eight points ahead of Ford. However, Andrew Young, Domise's campaign manager, says the figures should be taken with more than a pinch of salt.

The informal, live-caller telephone poll was conducted between the October 7th and 10th with "about 4,000" decided voters, he says, as part of regular canvassing. Voters were asked how they would cast their ballot after some "persuasion and discussion."

"We had a fundraiser coming up, which we were inviting people to, and so we initially gauged support to figure out if we should be offering the invitation."

News of the internal poll comes after a week in which Ford was asked to leave three polling stations for being in potential breach of the Municipal Elections Act.

An email sent to Domise's supporters Friday thanked donors and volunteers, but said the team's signs were being destroyed faster than they could be replaced.

Despite the unscientific nature of the questioning, Domise's camp believes it's within striking distance of Ford.

"The response at the door, and online, and in every form that we've been featured in has been overwhelmingly positive," Young said. "It's just nice now to know that other people are kind of picking up on that a little bit."

Chris Bateman is a staff writer at blogTO. Follow him on Twitter at @chrisbateman.