Clinton, Trump in tight race five days to US election

There is a picture of tight race to the finish for both Democratic Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump in critical battlegrounds of Arizona, Florida, Nevada and Pennsylvania, five days to the election.

A new CNN/ORC polls across the four states showed Clinton holding a four-point edge among likely voters in the historically blue-tilting Pennsylvania, while Trump tops Clinton by five points with voters in red-leaning Arizona.

Florida appeared to be as tight a contest as ever, with Clinton at 49 per cent among likely voters and Trump at 47 per cent.

In Nevada, the poll showed the race had also shifted, with Trump now ahead with 49 per cent to Clinton’s 43 per cent, compared with a two-point Clinton edge in mid-October.

The mid-October poll came at a particularly bad time for Trump in most polls, following the second presidential debate and the revelation of a tape in which he talked about sexually aggressive behavior toward women using vulgar language.

The new poll came at a challenging time for Clinton in many polls, with national and some state polls narrowing amid news that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has obtained additional emails.

It is believed that the additional emails could be relevant to the FBI’s investigation of the private server Clinton used while she was Secretary of State.

Across all four states, women were more apt than men to support Clinton as men tilted to Trump in each place, according to the poll.

The polls showed that white voters heavily supported Trump in each state, while non-whites favor Clinton by wide margins.

Similarly, voters who said they had already cast ballots in Arizona and Nevada were about evenly split, with a narrow advantage for Clinton, while she held a wide margin among those who said they had already voted in Florida.

Trump tops Clinton by double-digits in all three states among those likely voters who said they planned to cast their ballot on Nov. 8.

In Pennsylvania, where votes cast before election day come only from those who apply for an absentee ballot and have a reason why they can’t vote on Election Day, there were too few early voters to analyse.

In Florida and Nevada, there were sharp enthusiasm gaps between Clinton voters and Trump voters, with the Trump backers far more likely to say they are enthusiastic about voting this year.

In Florida, 58 per cent of enthusiasts were among Trump supporters compared to 48 per cent among Clinton backers while in Nevada, 61 per cent were for Trump voters while 48 per cent were for Clinton supporters.

In Arizona and Pennsylvania, fewer than half of voters in both states said they were extremely or very enthusiastic about voting for president this year.

(NAN)