Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton hasn’t had a formal press conference since late last year, largely avoiding media questions for the entire primary season. Republican nominee Donald Trump’s routine press conferences often seem to do him more harm than good. Do voters want presidential candidates to meet the press?

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 82% of Likely U.S. Voters think it is important for the major presidential candidates to hold regular press conferences to answer questions from reporters, with 48% who say it is Very Important. Just 17% view regular press conferences as unimportant, and that includes only three percent (3%) who feel they are Not At All Important. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

(Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook.

The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on August 15-16, 2016 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.