Hillary Clinton Holds Significant Lead in Election Polling
October 24, 2016
Since September 11, Hillary Clinton has faced pressure over her health as she fainted in public after suffering from pneumonia, which led her to take a brief break from campaigning. She returned on September 15 to Greensboro, North Carolina, to campaign and answer questions from reporters.
Clinton said at her campaign event, “As you may know, I recently had a cough that turned out to be pneumonia. I tried to power through it but even I had to admit that maybe a few days of rest would do me good… I’m not great at taking it easy even under ordinary circumstances, but with just two months to go until Election Day, sitting at home was pretty much the last place I wanted to be.”
With fewer than three months until Elec- tion Day, recent polls show that candidate Clin- ton is in the lead over Trump by a mere 6 percent. Among registered voters, 49 percent support Clinton, while 43 percent are in favor of Trump. Fifty percent of likely supporters support Clin- ton and 45 percent support Trump. To add on, Clinton beats Trump on the question that asks likely voters who they feel will win the election. Fifty-six percent think Clinton will win, and only 39 percent think Trump will win.
Each of the fifty states has a certain amount of Electoral College votes to award a candidate, depending on the number of mem- bers of Congress it has, which correlates with the state’s population. The votes are given on a win- ner-takes-all basis, with the exclusion of Maine and Nebraska. This method is important, as the popular vote matters less than the Electoral Col- lege vote. If Clinton does well in big Democratic states, those states could lead her to win with their large number of Electoral College votes.
Both candidates’ success is limited be- cause of the 6 in 10 voters who doubt both Clin- ton’s and Trump’s honesty and trustworthiness. Only 33 percent of Americans think Clinton is honest and trustworthy, compared to the 35 per- cent who think the same of Trump.
Swing states are the states to watch. Swing states are states where the two major par- ties have similar levels of support among voters during elections. Arizona, Florida, North Caro- lina, Ohio and Virginia are swing states. They have the power to severely impact election out- comes. Neither Trump nor Clinton has a signifi- cant lead in these states.
It’s important to keep in mind that dur- ing the remaining four weeks until Election Day, anything can happen and change the results of these polls.