Donald Trump is poised to win 306 electoral votes on Monday if all electors stick with the candidate who won their state. | Getty Voters show little support for Electoral College revolt

On the eve of an historic Electoral College vote, a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll shows there’s little support for a long-shot effort to free this year’s electors to choose a candidate other than Donald Trump.

A 46 percent plurality of voters say that electors should be bound to vote for the candidate that won their state, more than the 34 percent who think electors shouldn’t be bound if they have significant concerns about the winning candidate. Two-in-10 voters were undecided on the question.


Trump is poised to win 306 electoral votes on Monday if all electors stick with the candidate who won their state — despite winning 2.9 million fewer votes than Democrat Hillary Clinton. Trump’s business conflicts and alleged Russian interference in the election have created additional questions about whether electors should certify Trump as the next president on Monday.

Voters are divided along partisan lines on whether electors should be bound to support Trump or Clinton, according to their state’s vote totals. Half of self-identified Democrats — and 52 percent of Clinton voters — say the electors shouldn’t be bound. But 64 percent of both Republicans and Trump voters say the electors should be bound.

That polarization extends to whether the system should be overhauled in the future to elect the candidate who receives the largest share of the national popular vote.

A plurality, 46 percent, favor amending the Constitution to replace the Electoral College with the popular vote, the poll shows, more than the 40 percent who would keep the Electoral College in place. But more than two-thirds of self-identified Democrats, 69 percent, want to replace the Electoral College, and 62 percent of Republicans want to keep it.

Similarly, 71 percent of voters who said they backed Clinton supported abolishing the Electoral College, while 62 percent of Trump voters want to keep the current system.

“Not surprisingly, Democrats are four times more likely to want to get rid of the Electoral College than Republicans,” said Kyle Dropp, Morning Consult co-founder and chief research officer.

Voters’ modest preference for the popular vote is unaffected by the procedural roadblocks to reform. The results were similar when voters were asked the same question, but without requiring a constitutional amendment: Forty-eight percent favored the popular vote, while 36 percent want to continue the current system.

The poll was conducted Dec. 15-17, surveying 2,000 registered voters. The margin of error is plus or minus 2 percentage points.

Morning Consult is a nonpartisan media and technology company that provides data-driven research and insights on politics, policy and business strategy.

More details on the poll and its methodology can be found in these two documents —

Toplines: http://politi.co/2hJBuUA Crosstabs: http://politi.co/2h0qRxb