Poll: Clinton Hits 50 Percent Mark, Leads Trump by 12 Points Nationally

Hillary Clinton hit the 50 percent mark in taking a 12-point national lead over Donald Trump, according to the latest Monmouth University poll released Monday.

The results among likely voters:

• Clinton: 50 percent
• Trump: 38 percent
• Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson: 5 percent;
• Green Party nominee Jill Stein: 2 percent.

Clinton led this poll 46 percent to 42 percent just three weeks ago.

"The main difference between this month and last month is that (Clinton's) supporters have become more enthusiastic, and thus more likely to turn out while Trump backers have become less likely to vote," said Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute.

Trump's net unfavorable rating has worsened, from minus-25 last month to the current minus-35.

Hurting Trump are allegations by several women claiming they were groped or sexually harassed by Trump; 62 percent of voters believe the claims to be credible.

However, voters are split as to whether that affects Trump's fitness to be president:

• Trump's behavior not disqualifying: 46 percent;
• Trump unfit to be president: 45 percent;
• Undecided/Third-party voters: 48 percent say behavior not disqualifying;
• Undecided/Third-party voters: 38 percent say Trump unfit to be president.

The Monmouth University poll was conducted Oct. 14-16 with a national random sample of 805 registered voters. For results based on this sample, one can say with 95 percent confidence that the error attributable to sampling has a maximum margin of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

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