Poll shows tight race for Trump, Clinton

Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, speaks during a rally at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro on Thursday. The latest New York Times/CBS News poll finds Clinton and her opponent Donald Trump locked in a tight race with l...

With less than eight weeks before Election Day, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are locked in a tight contest, with both candidates still struggling to win the confidence of their respective bases, the latest New York Times/CBS News poll finds.

Clinton, the Democratic nominee, has the support of 46 percent of likely voters nationwide, to 44 percent for Trump, the Republican, including those who said they were leaning toward a candidate. Looking more broadly at all registered voters, Clinton holds a wider edge, 46 to 41 percent.

In a four-way race, Trump and Clinton are tied at 42 percent each. Gary Johnson, the Libertarian candidate, has the support of 8 percent of likely voters, and the Green Party nominee, Jill Stein, takes 4 percent.

The third-party candidates draw their strongest support from younger voters. Twenty-six percent of voters ages 18 to 29 say they plan to vote for Johnson, and another 10 percent back Stein. A little more than 1 in 5 political independents say they will vote for one of the third-party candidates.

Discontent with the major party candidates is widespread. Among those who say they intend to vote for Trump or Clinton, slightly more than half express strong support. The rest say that they harbor reservations about their candidate, or that they are simply voting to thwart the other nominee.

Overall, just 43 percent of likely voters describe themselves as very enthusiastic about casting a ballot in November. Fifty-one percent of Trump’s supporters say they are very enthusiastic about voting; 43 percent of Clinton’s supporters say they are very enthusiastic.

Clinton found herself under attack last week for suggesting that half of Trump’s supporters held views that made them “deplorables,” and for her campaign’s attempts to conceal her pneumonia diagnosis. The Times/CBS News poll was conducted from Sept. 9 to 13, so many of those interviewed were aware of the controversies.

This is the first Times/CBS News poll of the election cycle to include a measure of likely voters. The nationwide telephone survey reached 1,433 registered voters and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points. To achieve a sample that reflected the probable electorate, these voters were weighted by their responses to questions about voting history, attention to the campaign and likelihood of voting.