Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Ed Gillespie has a lead on Democratic candidate Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam less than one week before the election, according to a new poll.

Gillespie leads Northam by three points, 46 percent compared to 43 percent among likely voters in a poll released Friday by The Polling Company. The poll was conduced online and by telephone between October 3oth and November 2nd and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.46 percent.

The poll, that was shared by Real Clear Politics, mentioned that 88 percent of the 800 participants polled were “very likely” to vote this November. The other 12 percent were “somewhat likely” to vote.

The 46 percent for Gillespie is a polling total that includes voters that are “definitely,” “probably” and “leaning” towards that vote when given the option to vote for either Gillespie or Northam and no third party candidates.

A poll released Oct. 25 showed Gillespie with an eight-point lead in the race, 41 to 33 percent in a Hampton University Center for Public Policy poll of likely voters. The margin of error for this poll was plus or minus 4.2 percent and was conducted through a random telephone sampling of 750 registers voters.

These recent poll numbers come as Northam has faced criticism for an advertisement released by a Latino Victory Fund, a progressive political action committee, that showed a white man in a pickup truck sporting a Gillespie bumper stick and chasing after a group of frightened minorities.

Latino Victory Fund pulled the ad, which had drawn outrage from conservative groups for its overt racial fear-mongering, hours after an Islamic terrorist used a rented van to run down and kill 8 people in New York on Tuesday. (RELATED: Hispanic Group Pulls Confederate Truck Rampage Ad After NY Terror Attack)

A spokesperson for the Northam campaign initially defended the messaging in the ad, but Northam himself later denied that the video was produced at the direction of his campaign.

The election takes place in the commonwealth of Virginia on Nov. 7th.

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