DAVE GRAM

MONTPELIER - Hillary Clinton did somewhat better among women who voted in Vermont’s Democratic primary on Tuesday than she did among men, but U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders swamped her among both genders in his home state, exit polls showed.

The exit poll conducted by Edison Research for The Associated Press and television networks showed about 8 in 10 women supported Sanders, while about 9 in 10 men voted for him.

Sanders has been doing better among young voters than their elders in early primaries around the country, and that held true in Vermont as well. But again, it was a matter of how whopping big his margin of victory was.

Nearly 8 in 10 Vermont Democratic primary voters, 65 or older, supported him and more than 9 in 10 of those under 30 did as well.

Clinton has shown strength among minority voters in other primaries. In Vermont, which is more than 93 percent non-Hispanic white, the exit poll results did not reflect the candidates’ performance among minorities because these groups were too small to measure the statistical results accurately.

On the Republican side, Donald Trump supporters decided on their favorite earlier than supporters of other GOP candidates. Those who decided before the last month were more likely to support Trump, while those who decided within the past month were more likely to support John Kasich.

Eight in 10 Vermont Democratic voters had chosen their favored candidate before the past month.

Experience helped Clinton a bit among Vermont Democratic voters a bit. Six in 10 who chose that as their most important quality in a candidate picked her. But among those for whom honesty was most important, voters went almost unanimously for Sanders.

Honesty was the most important quality for about half of Vermont Democratic voters; experience was tops for just one in 10.

Other findings from the preliminary poll results were:

• About a third of Republican voters said the most important candidate quality in casting their vote was that he shared their values; another third said they decided on the candidate who they believed could bring needed change.

• Asked which candidate ran “the most unfair campaign,” nearly half of Republican voters chose Trump, while about a quarter chose Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.

•Nine in 10 Republicans said they took a negative view of the way the federal government has been operating.

• Sanders, a long-time political independent running for a Democratic nomination for the first time, did slightly better among first-time Democratic primary voters than he did among those who had voted in a Democratic primary in previous elections.

•Sanders did somewhat better among voters who said they considered themselves independents than he did among those who called themselves Democrats.

• A third of Democrats chose income inequality as their top issue and another third said it was the economy; less than 1 in 10 chose concern about terrorism.

• About half of Democratic voters said either Clinton or Sanders would respond well in an international crisis.

• Asked whether the U.S. economy favors the wealthy or treats people fairly, nearly 9 in 10 Democratic voters said it favors the wealthy.

The survey was conducted for The Associated Press and television networks by Edison Research as voters left their polling places at 20 randomly selected sites in Vermont. Preliminary results include interviews with 1,542 Democratic primary voters and 536 Republican primary voters. The results have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 5 percentage points for Republican primary voters and 4 percentage points for Democratic primary voters.