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Polls Gap Narrows with Five Days Left for Elections | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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A combination photo shows U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump (L) and U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary ClintonREUTERS


Washington- With five days left till the U.S. presidential elections comes to an end, polling gap narrows between candidates Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton with a slight upper hand for Clinton.

In a new CBS News/New York Times poll, Hillary Clinton leads Donald Trump by only three points, down from just weeks ago when her lead was nine points nationally.

According to the poll, Clinton is currently polling at 45%, Trump comes in at 42%, Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson has 5%, and Green Party candidate Jill Stein is polling at 4%.

In a two-way race, Clinton’s lead is 47% to Trump’s 44%, which compared to the last CBS News/New York Times poll on October 19, has shortened from an eleven point lead, 51% to 40%.

The two presidential candidates are now tied in Florida and North Carolina, and Clinton’s lead in Michigan has narrowed so much that the state is too close to call. Ohio remains a dead heat and Pennsylvania is now tilting to Clinton.

The States of the Nation project estimates Clinton’s odds of winning the needed 270 Electoral College votes at about 90 percent, down from 95 percent last week. If the election had been held on Wednesday, the project estimates, she would have had 256 solid electoral votes and an estimated final tally of about 302 votes, to 236 for Trump. Last week, she had 278 solid votes and a final tally of 320 votes, to 218 for Trump.

With just a few days before Election Day, most voters have made up their minds on who they will cast their vote for, 92% to be exact. But when it comes to voters for specific candidates, 95% of both Clinton and Trump supporters say they are voting for that specific candidate.

Within the past week, the FBI announced the finding of new emails possibly related to the Hillary Clinton private email server investigation. Since then 32% of voters who have not yet cast their ballots in early or absentee voting say they are less likely to vote for Clinton, but 62% say the information makes no difference to their choice for president.

More so, President Barack Obama has urged Democrats of all ethnic backgrounds to get out and vote for Hillary Clinton, warning that the fate of the U.S. republic – and the world – is at stake.

He said her Republican opponent Donald Trump was a threat to hard-earned civil rights.

President Obama was speaking at a rally in North Carolina.

Clinton told voters that the fabric of U.S. society was at stake in the election. “Come January 20, America will have a new president. It will either be me or my opponent,” she said.

“The question is what kind of change are we going to see? Are we going to build a stronger, fairer, better America or are we going to fear each other and fear our future?”

Noting the disparaging comments Trump has made about women, the disabled, African Americans, Latinos and Muslims, Clinton borrowed a quote from the first lady: “The presidency doesn’t change who you are, it reveals who you are.”