New polling points to a clear presidential favorite

The majority of voters said they are scared of both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump being elected USA president, according to a new poll released Thursday, highlighting a choice for one of the major candidates as the lesser of two evils.

Among registered voters, Clinton is ahead of Trump by seven points in Florida, nine points in Virginia, eight points in Colorado and six points in North Carolina. Clinton leads the Republican by a margin of 41 percent to 36 percent when Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson and Green Party candidate Jill Stein are added.

Three-quarters of voters say their pick for president is motivated by a desire to cast their vote against Clinton or Trump, more than those who say they are voting for the candidate who shares their positions on the issues or is the most qualified to hold the office. Independent voters are slightly more likely to name Clinton (39%) than Trump (30%) as the candidate who best represents their views on health care, though almost a quarter (23%) say “neither” does.

The telephone survey was conducted July 5-11 by the Marist College Institute of Public Opinion.

The New York businessman topped Clinton 44 percent to 37 percent in a Rasmussen Reports poll that was released Thursday. Florida went to President Barack Obama twice while Obama won North Carolina in 2008 and lost in 2012.

Mr Kaine is widely seen as the “safe choice” to become Hillary Clinton’s vice-presidential running mate, and that may be the biggest mark against him. Florida’s voters put Clinton at 41 percent, Trump at 36 percent, Johnson at 7 percent and Stein at 4 percent. Other recent surveys indicate things have tightened up in some swing states, though the overall picture indicates that the race is still Clinton’s to lose as she remains ahead in most battleground polling.

The poll also suggests that Trump still faces difficulty unifying the Republican Party after the contentious primary campaign, as he gets no more than 79% of the Republican vote in all four swing states polled. Negative views of Trump were higher, with 65 percent having an unfavorable impression. In North Carolina he’s at 31 percent favorable, 61 percent unfavorable.