Poll: Clinton, Trump Tied Nationwide Going Into Conventions
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The race for president is a dead heat with Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump tied with voters nationwide heading into the two parties' conventions, according to a new poll.
The CBS News/NY Times poll out Thursday shows both candidates each getting the support of 40 percent of registered voters nationwide. A month ago, Clinton led Trump 43 to 37 percent.
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The race is essentially the same when Libertarian candidate Gov. Gary Johnson is added to the mix. He gets 12 percent of the vote, but Clinton and Trump remain tied at 36 percent each.
According to the poll, 90 percent of Trump voters and 88 percent of Clinton voters said their choice is set while about one in 10 of each candidate's supporters said they might change their minds before the election.
Clinton's standing on some key candidate qualities has taken a bit of a hit after she was harshly criticized by FBI Director James Comey on the use of her private email server while secretary of state.
The FBI recommended that no criminal charges against Clinton, but in the wake of the investigation, the poll found 67 percent of voters now say Clinton is not honest and trustworthy, up from 62 percent last month -- the highest of the 2016 campaign season.
Also, only 48 percent of voters now say Clinton is prepared for the job of president, although half still say she is, according to the poll.
But the survey found that views of Trump have not improved on these measures and remain mostly negative with 62 percent of voters saying they don't think he's honest and two-thirds saying he is not prepared to be president.
On some important issues, the poll found that Trump has improved his standing with voters. Trump now has an 11-point lead over Clinton on the handling of the economy and jobs and is even with her on terrorism and national security.
Last month, Clinton had an eight-point lead over Trump on illegal immigration, but that has been cut to three points, according to the survey.
On the issue of trade, the candidates are about even while Clinton has a 31-point advantage on handling race relations.
For the full poll results, click here.
This poll was conducted by telephone July 8-12, 2016 among a random sample of 1,600 adults nationwide, including 1,358 registered voters. Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish using live interviewers.
The error due to sampling for results based on the entire sample could be plus or minus three percentage points. The margin of error for the sample of registered voters is three points. The error for subgroups may be higher and is available by request. The margin of error includes the effects of standard weighting procedures which enlarge sampling error slightly.