Clinton holds 4-point lead among likely voters — poll
Democratic nominee also has comfortable lead over her Republican rival with those who have already cast ballots
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton leads by four points among likely voters and by 12 points among those who have already voted, according to a survey published by the Wall Street Journal and NBC on Sunday.
The poll found that Republican nominee Donald Trump holds an enormous 32-point lead over Clinton among white males without a four-year college degree, but the Democrat holds the advantage among college-educated voters.
In responses taken from likely voters, 44% said they support Clinton, while 40% said Trump. Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson scored 6%, and Green Party nominee Jill Stein 2%.
The results showed Clinton has lost some of the lead she held in mid-October, when she was 11 points ahead.
Clinton’s campaign suffered a blow when on October 28 FBI Director James Comey said the bureau would investigate whether there was classified information in newly discovered emails that appear to be related to its probe of Clinton’s email practices during her time as secretary of state.
However, among those who have already cast their ballots, Clinton has a 12-point lead of 51% to Trump’s 39%, likely a result of her push for supporters to vote early.
Clinton has a strong lead among college-educated white voters with 57% supporting her compared to 40% for Trump. In 2012, Republican nominee Mitt Romney led his rival US President Barack Obama by 14% among that demographic based on exit polls at the time.
White, college-educated women rallied behind Clinton, favoring her by an 18-point margin. White men without a four-year college degree backed the Republican (57%) over Clinton (25%) in a third-party vote.
Voters showed lingering doubts over the suitability of either candidate to lead the country.
Asked if they would be comfortable and prepared to support Trump if he wins, 54% said they would not, opposed to 43% who said they would back the new president. Clinton would enjoy the backing of 52% of voters if she assumed office, with 46% wary of her taking control.
With just two days to go until the November 8 election, both candidates held similar levels of support among voters within their own parties, at 82%.
In a four-way vote, 82% of Republicans support Trump, with the same Democratic support for Clinton. In a two-way vote, Trump’s support was 85%, up from 80%, according to a poll from mid-October.
The poll, carried out between November 3-5, sampled 1,282 likely voters and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.73 percentage points.
An ABC/Washington Post tracker released early Sunday gave a Clinton a 48%-43% lead.
Agencies contributed to this report.