3rd Party Libertarian Could Siphon Votes from Clinton, Trump: Poll

DETROIT, MI – A third-party candidate like Libertarian Gary Johnson could siphon Michigan votes from both former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and businessman Donald Trump, according to a new Michigan poll that shows voters aren’t enthralled with either candidate.

The Detroit News / WDIV-TV poll of 600 likely voters shows that Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee, would defeat presumptive Republican nominee Trump, 43 percent to 38.5 percent.

Nationally, a new CNN Poll of Polls released Wednesday showed Clinton has a razor-thin 2 percent lead over Trump in an average of five recent national polls of likely November voters.

In the new Michigan poll, another 4 percent said they would vote for someone else, and 12 percent said they are undecided. When respondents were given a choice to vote for Johnson, a former governor of New Mexico, 11.5 percent said they would vote for the Libertarian.

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Under that scenario, Clinton still led Trump, 37 percent to 34 percent, but the 4 percentage points, which is within the poll’s margin of error of plus-minus 4 percentage points..

The poll also showed that Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who has vowed to remain in the race through the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia July 25-28, would defeat Trump by an 18.7 percent margin.

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The survey of likely voters, which included 33 percent who were contacted on their cellphones, was conducted May 24-26.

Image credit: Photos by Gage Skidmore via Flickr / Creative Commons

» For more results from the Michigan poll, go to The Detroit News and WDIV-TV.