PRESIDENTIAL RACE | Exit polls show voters troubled by Trump’s treatment of women

CHICAGO (TNS) — Fifty-one percent of voters nationally were bothered a lot by Republican Donald Trump’s treatment of women, while Democrat Hillary Clinton’s use of private email while secretary of state was troubling to 44 percent, according to preliminary exit polling as voting neared a close in some states.

The exit polling, released by ABC News on Tuesday afternoon, also showed that 53 percent of voters found Clinton qualified to be president, with 56 percent saying she has the right personality and temperament, compared with 37 percent and 34 percent for Trump.

Additional details from the exit polls, including bottom-line numbers on who those surveyed voted for, won’t be released until later in the evening. The survey was commissioned by The Associated Press and television networks.

Tuesday’s balloting brings to a close a bitter and often bizarre presidential race that pitted a former television reality star against a woman who already spent eight years in the White House as first lady before becoming a senator and secretary of state. In some ways, the election will serve as a referendum on whether voters want to preserve the political establishment or blow it up.

About half of voters in the exit poll picked the economy as the top issue facing the nation and Clinton held a “solid lead” with those voters, according to NBC News.

Trump continued to hold out on whether he would accept the results if Clinton is declared the winner. His son, Donald Trump Jr., said Tuesday on MSNBC that his father would concede if he clearly loses in a fair vote.

While a concession from a presidential candidate has cultural significance in helping the country accept the result and move on, it has “no legal status whatsoever,” said Edward Foley, director of an election law program at Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law.

If the race for the 270 Electoral College votes needed for the presidency isn’t close, a concession won’t matter in declaring an unofficial winner. But if it’s too close to call in one or more states and the Electoral College outcome is in doubt, the winner may not be determined until the official state results are certified, Foley said.

Recounts are always possible if the margin is narrow enough, a candidate requests them or legal challenges emerge. Trump already has sued election officials in Nevada because an early voting station at a Las Vegas market stayed open until 10 p.m. on Nov. 4, past the normal 8 p.m. closing time. Local officials say the polling place stayed open to accommodate voters already in line at 8 p.m., as is allowed under state law.

Trump voted at a school on Manhattan’s East Side Tuesday morning after calling in to Fox News to reflect on the “beautiful process” of his more than 500-day campaign. As most polls showed Clinton narrowly favored to win, he also warned of “purposely” inaccurate surveys and said he would consider it “a tremendous waste of time, energy and money” if he lost.