A few days ago, we asked readers to select their presidential preference for nominees of the two major parties. Over 2,100 readers responded.
About 35% of survey participants identified themselves as Independent voters. About 31% said they were Republicans and 28% said they were Democrats. The remainder were libertarians or “other”.
Donald Trump received the most votes of any candidate in this survey.
Overall Results from All Survey Participants
The option receiving the most votes in this survey was: “I would not vote for a Democratic candidate.” (998 votes) This was in response to the question, “If the election were held today, for whom would you vote among the Democratic candidates for president?”
From the two leading Democratic candidates, Hillary Clinton had a small lead over her opponent, Bernie Sanders. Here are the overall survey results.
| Hillary Clinton | 26.63% |
| Bernie Sanders | 24.84% |
| I would not vote for a Democratic candidate | 47.03% |
| Other Democrat | 1.51% |
And, among all voters who responded to the question, “If the election were held today, for whom would you vote among the Republican candidates for president?” the winner by a small margin was “I would not vote for a Republican candidate.” (670 votes) Among the Republican candidates, the winner by a significant margin was Donald Trump. Here are the results:
| Ted Cruz | 14.09% |
| John Kasich | 21.07% |
| Donald Trump | 31.39% |
| I would not vote for a Republican candidate | 31.57% |
| Other Republican | 1.89% |
The candidate receiving the most votes among all survey participants was Donald Trump with 666 votes and Hillary Clinton came in second with 565 votes.
The unpopularity of the two leading candidates in the FedSmith survey, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, is consistent with the opinion of American voters nationwide. A new poll by the Wall Street Journal/NBC News shows that these candidates are unpopular. Hillary Clinton is dropping fast with 56% of voters holding a negative view and 32% with a favorable view (a gap that is about twice as wide as the previous month). Donald Trump’s unfavorable view is about the same as it was a month ago, but he still has the largest negative ratings with 65% of registered voters viewing him unfavorably and 24% favorably in the WSJ/NBC poll.
Winner Among Democrats Who Took the Survey
Among readers who identified as Democrats, Hillary Clinton was the big winner with about 61% of the votes. Bernie Sanders received about 33% and almost 5% said “I would not vote for a Democratic candidate.”
71% of Democrats in the survey indicated “I would not vote for a Democratic candidate” and John Kasich was the favored Republican candidate with almost 16% of those taking the survey. Among Democrats, the overall winner was Hillary Clinton with 361 votes and 199 for Bernie Sanders. John Kasich received 93 votes.
Here are the results among Democrats:
| Hillary Clinton | 60.67% |
| Bernie Sanders | 33.45% |
| I would not vote for a Democratic candidate | 4.71% |
| Other | 1.18% |
| Ted Cruz | 2.02% |
| John Kasich | 16.63% |
| Donald Trump | 9.58% |
| I would not vote for a Republican candidate | 71.43 |
| Other | 1.34% |
Winner Among Republicans Who Took the Survey
Among Republicans taking this survey, more than 83% indicated “I would not vote for a Democratic candidate”.
Their favorite among the actual candidates was Bernie Sanders, who received almost 10% of their votes. Overall, the winner among Republicans was Donald Trump with 311 votes compared to 181 for Ted Cruz. Bernie Sanders received 63 votes among this segment of survey participants.
Here are the results:
| Hillary Clinton | 6% |
| Bernie Sanders | 9.45% |
| I would not vote for a Democratic candidate | 83.36% |
| Other | 1.20% |
| Ted Cruz | 27.14% |
| John Kasich | 22.04% |
| Donald Trump | 46.63% |
| I would not vote for a Republican candidate | 2.40% |
| Other | 1.80% |
Preferences Among Independent Voters
In this volatile election year, the winner of the election in November is likely to be determined by Independent voters. Independent voters were also the largest group in this survey. Among these voters, Donald Trump received the most votes with 257 votes. Bernie Sanders received 229 votes from Independents. Almost 47% of Independent voters indicated “I would not vote for a Democratic candidate” while almost 27% indicated “I would not vote for a Republican candidate.” Here are the results of how Independents voted in this survey:
| Hillary Clinton | 20.35% |
| Bernie Sanders | 30.86% |
| I would not vote for a Democratic candidate | 46.77% |
| Other | 2.02% |
| Ted Cruz | 10.92% |
| John Kasich | 25.74% |
| Donald Trump | 34.64% |
| I would not vote for a Republican candidate | 26.82% |
| Other | 1.89% |
2016 is promising to be an interesting year for politics. No doubt, many voters are angry or upset with the direction of the country and the functioning of the federal government. With about 71% of Americans in polls indicating they are dissatisfied with the direction of the country and 27% satisfied, there are likely to be some surprises in election results in November. (The last time more than 50% were satisfied with the direction the country was in January 2004.)
