Thursday, July 14, 2016
By Marc Kovac
COLUMBUS
Presumptive presidential nominees Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton remain essentially tied in Ohio and two other swing states, with the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute Wednesday saying the races are too close to call.
A total of 955 Ohio voters surveyed were evenly split, 41 percent-41 percent, between Republican and Democrat, compared with a 40 percent-40 percent split last month.
In Florida, the 1,015 voters polled split 42 percent-39 percent in favor of Trump. And in Pennsylvania, it was 43 percent-41 percent for Trump among 982 voters.
“Donald Trump enters the Republican Convention on a small roll in the three most important swing states in the country,” Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the poll, said in a released statement. “He has wiped out Hillary Clinton’s lead in Florida, is on the upside of too-close to call races in Florida and Pennsylvania and is locked in a dead heat in Ohio. While there is no definite link between Clinton’s drop in Florida and the U.S. Justice Department decision not to prosecute her for her handling of emails, she has lost ground to Trump on questions which measure moral standards and honesty.”
Connecticut-based Quinnipiac regularly gauges the opinions of voters on candidates and issues in Ohio and other swing states. Its latest poll had margin of error of about 3 percentage points.
Ohio voters questioned over the past week expressed disenchantment about their current status, with majorities saying they were “falling further and further behind economically,” that “the old ways don’t work and it’s time for radical change” and that “public officials ‘don’t care much what people like me think.’”
Both Trump and Clinton received negative favorability marks overall — 60 percent of those polled viewed Clinton unfavorably, while 59 percent viewed Trump as such.
More than half said Clinton was better prepared to be president and more intelligent. More than half thought Trump would be better at creating jobs and dealing with ISIS.