The election is too close to call, pundits say, citing the less than 1 percentage point that separate Romney and Huckabee for first place in an average of the latest polls.

Utah pollster Dan Jones said Romney can still pull it off.

Jones said the key to a caucus victory is having a strong campaign organization able to turn out voters. Romney proved he can do that by winning the nonbinding Iowa Republican straw poll held last August that's considered a test of a candidate's strength where it counts — on the ground.

"I don't care about all the polls being done. It really does comes down to who gets the people out," Jones said, a somewhat surprising statement coming from a pollster. "It's who has the best ground war."

A win for Romney in Iowa could ease the focus on his Mormon faith, Jones said. Throughout the past year, pundits and politicians, including Huckabee, have raised questions about Romney's beliefs as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

"If Romney wins in Iowa, it would signify that maybe his religion doesn't play the role that many people thought it would," Jones said. But if Romney loses in the early races and his religion is blamed, being LDS could end up costing him votes.

"It depends on how the media plays Iowa and New Hampshire," Jones said. "If they say it's the Mormonism that cost him, people are going to say, 'I'm not going to do that (vote for Romney)"'

New Hampshire, which holds its Republican and Democratic presidential primaries on Jan. 8, is the next big test for White House contenders. Wyoming Republicans will select their presidential pick on Saturday, at a state party convention.

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