Poll: Race nearly tied with a week to go
Presidential nominees Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are all but tied in the latest Washington PostABC News Tracking Poll, which finds Clinton backers slipping behind in enthusiasm even as the Democrat has an edge in early voting.
The poll finds little shift in Clinton’s overall support following news of the FBI’s renewed look at Clinton emails, but strong enthusi- asm among her supporters fell behind Trump.
By 53 to 43 percent, more Trump supporters say they are “very enthusiastic” about him, compared with Thursday and Friday when Trump’s edge was negligible — 53 percent vs. 51 percent.
Voter enthusiasm has been in short supply for both Clinton and Trump through the fall campaign and continues to lag excitement about candidates on the ballot four years ago.
At this point in 2012, 64 percent of President Barack Obama supporters said they were “very enthusiastic” about him; Romney was behind at 61 percent.
Trump and Clinton continue to run nearly even in overall vote preferences, with Trump at 46 percent and Clinton 45 percent in a four-way contest in the poll. The margin is a mirror 48-47 Clinton-Trump split when third-party candidates are asked which major-party candidate they lean toward, a comparison that has grown in impor- tance as support declines for Libertarian Gary Johnson and the Green Party’s Jill Stein.
Over 1 in 5 likely voters identified in the Post-ABC poll report as having already voted, 21 percent, while about one-quarter say they plan to vote early or by mail, 24 percent, and a slight majority plan to vote inperson on Election Day.
The poll of a random sample of 1,773 adults was conducted Oct. 27-30 and has an error margin of plus or minus 3.0 points. Voters cast ballots in Miami even as enthusiasm is said to be in short supply for Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.