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Hillary Clinton Vs. Donald Trump Polls: America Does Not Want Clinton Or Trump — Could A Third-Party Candidate Influence The Election?

By Phillip Dengler
Published on: 05:14 PST, Jul 10, 2016

Presumptive Republican nominee for United States president Donald Trump loses support among likely voters against presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll that was released on Friday by Reuters. The poll, which was conducted from July 3-8 and included 1,240 likely voters, had an accuracy of three percentage points.

“So far it appears that Johnson and Stein draw support evenly from Clinton and Trump when they are included in opinion polls. In a four-way race, 45 percent of likely voters support Clinton, 34 percent Trump, 5 percent Johnson and 4 percent Stein, according to a separate five-day polling average on July 8. That compares with 46 percent for Clinton and 33 percent for Trump in a two-way race.”

As the Inquisitr recently reported, Trump had been narrowing the gap against Clinton in recent polls conducted by USA Today/Suffolk and Reuters/Ipsos. While Trump had lost support among voters following his comments regarding last month’s shooting at Pulse, a popular LGBT nightclub in Orlando, Florida, it appeared as though he was in the process of recovering. Clinton increased her lead to double digits towards the middle of June, but Trump closed the gap into single digits after Clinton’s email scandal took center stage.

In the Reuters/Ipsos poll that was taken June 20–24, Clinton led Trump by 13.3 points. In another Reuters/Ispos poll that was taken June 23–28, Clinton’s lead was down to 11.2 points. In another Reuters/Ipsos poll that was taken June 27–July 1, Clinton’s lead was down to 9.4 points. In the USA Today/Suffolk poll that was taken June 26–29, Clinton only had a 5.2-point lead. Regardless of Trump’s views on Muslims and illegal immigration, some voters continued to support him.

It appears as though Trump’s recovery was only temporary, as Clinton, once again, has a 13-point lead over Trump in a two-way race. The interesting part is when Gary Johnson of the Libertarian Party and Jill Stein of the Green Party are added in as potential candidates for voters. As expected, Trump and Clinton still receive the majority of the support, but 9 percent of voters prefer Johnson or Stein.

Another poll by Reuters/Ipsos, which was conducted from July 1-8 and included 2,153 likely voters from all 50 states, shows that a fairly significant percentage of people do not want Trump or Clinton. The poll, which had a measure of accuracy of two percentage points, shows that many potential voters are concerned about the future of the United States if Trump or Clinton is elected.

“21 percent of likely voters will not back Trump or Clinton. That compares with about 13 percent of likely voters who opted out of the two main choices at the same point in the 2012 race between incumbent President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney. The poll also showed a majority of American voters have an overall ‘unfavorable’ view of both main candidates, with 46 percent of Clinton supporters and 47 percent of Trump supporters saying their top priority when voting will be to stop the opposing candidate from reaching the White House.”

With almost half of Clinton and Trump supporters only favoring their candidates in order to stop the other candidate from winning, Americans are left with two leading candidates that they really do not want. Since neither Johnson nor Stein are going to become the next president of the United States, Americans are going to have to deal with the reality that Trump or Clinton is going to win the election. Regardless, Johnson and Stein can still influence the election.

Johnson and Stein are currently drawing equal support from otherwise Clinton or Trump supporters, but that could change over the coming months. If more potential Clinton voters feel as though she is not the right person to become the next president, they could move their allegiance to one of the third-party candidates. While Trump would not be gaining more supporters in this scenario, it would still narrow the gap even further.

With the latest polls between presumptive Republican nominee for United States president Donald Trump and presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton showing a dislike for both candidates, it is going to get interesting over the next few months. While leading third-party candidates Gary Johnson of the Libertarian Party and Jill Stein of the Green Party are not going to win the election, they could still heavily influence who ultimately wins.

[Photo by John Sommers II/Getty Images]

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