Hillary Clinton enters the final week before Election Day with a 4-point lead over Donald Trump among independent likely voters, 16 percent of whom remain undecided, a new Bloomberg Politics/Purple Strategies poll shows.
In a two-way race, Clinton carries 39 percent support among independents to 35 percent for Trump. The poll was conducted from Oct. 28-31, coming after the FBI’s public decision to reopen the Clinton email case.
Forty-seven percent of independents said the agency’s announcement that it had reopened its investigation into the Democratic presidential hopeful’s handling of classified material will not have an impact on their vote come Nov. 8. Twenty-five percent of respondents said the latest development makes them more likely to cast their ballot for Trump.
Democrats reacted to the FBI news by slamming FBI Director James Comey as a partisan who had inappropriately injected himself into the election. But that response may not sit well with independents, 52 percent of whom thought Comey’s decision was fair.
In a four-way race featuring Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson and Green Party candidate Jill Stein, Clinton leads Trump 30 to 27 percent. Johnson takes 19 percent and Stein has 8 percent.
The poll of 601 likely voters nationwide who identify as independent was conducted online and contains a margin of error plus or minus 4 percentage points.
