2016 Presidential Poll: Latest Shows Trump & Clinton Close Before Debates

Donald Trump, Donald Trump Ohio, Donald Trump polls, Donald Trump vs Hillary Clinton

Donald Trump in Canton, Ohio on September 14. (Getty)

A new poll conducted by the New York Times and CBS News released on September 15 shows a close race nationally between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. The poll gives Clinton a slight lead over Trump, and also shows that voters want to see more of the candidates’ medical records. The poll was conducted before the two candidates released more information this week.

The results show that Clinton has a lead within that margin of error among likely voters in a two-way race. She’s up 44 percent to 43 percent for Trump. When third party candidates Jill Stein and Gary Johnson are included, the race between Clinton and Trump is tied at 41 percent.

The poll also found that Republicans are more excited about the election than Democrats. While 36 percent of total respondents are very enthusiastic, when the numbers are broken down by party, 43 percent of GOP voters are enthusiastic. Thirty-eight percent of Democrats are very enthusiastic.

As the poll was conducted before Trump’s interview with Dr. Oz and Clinton’s release of a recent doctor’s report, it shows that voters are still eager to learn more about the candidates’ health. After all, Trump would be the oldest person elected to a first term and Clinton would be the second-oldest. In the poll, 45 percent of the total registered voters who responded wanted more information, just below the 47 percent who believed that the candidates had released enough.

The CBS/NY Times poll also comes just two weeks before the first presidential debate and eight weeks before election day. And just a week ago, a CNN/ORC poll showed that Clinton was behind Trump by 2 percent, 43 to 45.

The poll was conducted between September 9-13 among 1,753 adults, with 1,433 of that number registered voters. It was conducted by SSRS and the margin of error was plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Here’s the results of the CBS/NYT Poll:


Likely Voters in Two-Way Race

Candidate Percentage Points
Clinton 44
Trump 43
Other 5
Won’t Vote 2
Depends 2
Don’t Know/No Answer 4

Likely Voters in Four-Way Race

Candidate Percentage Points
Clinton 41
Trump 41
Johnson 8
Stein 4
Other 1
Won’t Vote
Depends 1
Don’t Know/No Answer 3

CBS-NYT AM presidential poll toplines Sept 15 2016 by CBS News Politics on Scribd