A new poll shows about half of American voters will be casting a ballot to stop either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton from winning the White House.
The Reuters/Ipsos poll finds 47% of those who say they’re voting for Donald Trump are doing so in order to keep Hillary Clinton from winning. On the other side, 46% of Clinton voters say they are motivated to stop Trump from emerging victorious.
43% of Trump supporters say they agree with his policy positions while 6% say they like him personally. 40% of Clinton’s voters say they agree with her proposals while 11% like her personally.
The results reflect a deepening ideological divide in the United States, where people are becoming increasingly fearful of the opposing party, a feeling worsened by the likely matchup between the New York real estate tycoon and the former first lady, said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics.
“This phenomenon is called negative partisanship,” Sabato said. “If we were trying to maximize the effect, we couldn’t have found better nominees than Trump and Clinton.”
The same poll gave Clinton a 9-point lead over Trump nationally, while just over 1/4 of Americans (27%) said they either were undecided or would not vote.
