Half of voters are relying on the presidential debates to decide between Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump in the Nov. 8 election, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll released Monday.
The results:
- 50 percent say the debates will help them decide;
- 39 percent say the debates would not help;
- 11 percent say they don't know how the debates will affect them.
A majority of voters —72 percent — want the debate's moderators to call out the candidates when they say something that is not true. That goes for supporters of both candidates: 72 percent of Trump's supporters; 82 percent of voters who support Clinton.
"It helps the audience, particularly me, recognize what's bull crap and what's real. It's easy for the candidates to quote a statistic and the people accept it," said Harvey Leven, a teacher from Farmington Hills, Michigan, reports Reuters.
Another poll result showed that 61 percent of voters want the candidates to have a civilized discussion, not bickering.
"Quit picking on each other. This isn't a playground. Grow up and talk about your plan," said Lisa Miller of St. Louis, Missouri.
"With Donald Trump, I want to see that he has rational answers without name-calling. I want to try to get beyond the political hocus-pocus that both of them are doing and try to see who they really are," Leven added.
The Washington Post reports Clinton and Trump are in a virtual tie leading up to the first debate, according to a poll held by the Post and ABC News.
The first debate will be held at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York.
The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted online, included 2,124 American adults in all 50 states, with 1,337 of those deemed to be likely voters. The poll has a credibility interval, a measure of accuracy, of 2 percentage points for all respondents.