Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton leads early voting in the U.S.
Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton leads Republican candidate Donald Trump by 15 percentage points among early voters surveyed in the past two weeks.
This is according to the Reuters/Ipsos States of the Nation project, 11 days to go before the US presidential election.
The University of Florida’s United States Election Project said an estimated 19 million Americans have voted so far in the election. This is equivalent to as much as 20 percent of the electorate.
The results show that Clinton enjoys an edge in swing states such as Ohio and Arizona and even in Republican Party strongholds such as Georgia and Texas.
The Reuters/Ipsos survey showed that overall, Clinton remained on track to win a majority of votes in the Electoral College.
The survey was conducted before the news that is good for the camp of Clinton emerged Friday afternoon.
On Friday, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced that it is examining newly discovered emails belonging to Clinton’s close aide, Huma Abedin. Those emails were found on a computer belonging to Anthony Weiner, Abedin’s estranged husband, during an unrelated investigation into illicit messages he is alleged to have sent to a teenage girl.
To recall, Clinton has held a lead of four to seven percentage points in polls in recent weeks. This was after Trump campaign wrestled with accusations by women of groping and other sexual advances.
Trump has denied the accusations.
He also struggled in the recent presidential debates and faced questions about his taxes which he avoided to pay.
According to State of the Nation polling results released Saturday, Clinton’s odds of receiving the 270 Electoral College votes as of Thursday, needed to win the presidency remained at greater than 95 percent. The project estimated she would defeat Trump by 320 votes to 218, with 278 votes solidly for the Democrat.
Clinton’s lead among early voters is similar to the lead achieved by President Barack Obama over Republican Mitt Romney during the 2012 race. Obama won the election by 332 electoral votes to Romney’s 206.