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Polling by Baldwin Wallace University and cleveland.com shows Hillary Clinton gaining ground after the first debate with Donald Trump.

(Rich Exner, cleveland.com)

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Hillary Clinton's lead in Cuyahoga County over Donald Trump widened this week following the first presidential debate, according to a poll by Baldwin Wallace University and cleveland.com.

Clinton's support nearly matches the landslide results posted by Barack Obama over Mitt Romney in the county four years ago.

A post-debate Battleground Cuyahoga poll conducted Tuesday and Wednesday found Clinton receiving 66.6 percent support from likely voters and Trump at 25.1 percent - providing Clinton with a 41.5-point advantage.

Clinton's lead over Trump was 38.5 points in a similar poll concluded a week ago.

The post-debate poll showed Libertarian Gary Johnson with 3.5 percent and Green Party candidate Jill Stein with 2.5 percent. Undecided voters accounted for 2.3 percent.

Though nearly a foregone conclusion that Cuyahoga County will go Democratic in this fall's election - a Republican hasn't won Cuyahoga since 1972 - the vote margin could be key in determining who wins the state of Ohio.

Four years ago, Romney won the combined vote in the state's 87 other counties but lost Ohio because he lost by such a wide margin in Cuyahoga County. President Barack Obama won Cuyahoga 69.4 percent to 29.6 percent, a margin of 38.8 points.

These Cuyahoga findings reflect national reaction to the debate that indicates Clinton will gain in national polls.

About the poll

The unscientific post-debate poll is the second under a new partnership by the Community Research Institute at Baldwin Wallace and cleveland.com.

Unlike scientific polls conducted previously by BW, this poll did not incorporate a random sampling to gather responses. Instead, the poll relied on cleveland.com readers to complete a series of questions. This allowed a quicker response to Monday's debate but does not allow for the calculation of a margin of error.

Steps were taken to make this polling method more reliable than typical instant online polls.

Only registered likely voters were included in the results. Adjustments were made to the polling samples and results to reflect Cuyahoga County's race, gender and age makeup -- a common technique in scientific polling. And people could not repeatedly fill out the survey.

The initial Battleground Ohio poll released before the debate was done as a test in two parts: one using BW's scientific polling methods to randomly gather responses and one using cleveland.com readers.

The results were similar, with Clinton leading Trump in each poll. Differences included a larger number of undecided voters in the random sample and generally higher education levels for the cleveland.com readers.

The higher education level, repeated again in the latest poll, could have affected the results because other polling has shown people with "more education are more likely to break for Clinton," said Lauren Copeland, associate director of BW's Community Research Institute.

Yet Democrats historically also win a large share of the Cleveland vote, where education levels are not as high. Copeland said the number of people surveyed with only a high school degree was too small to establish a trend to judge the impact on this poll.

Debate impact

Ninety-six percent of the 1,838 people responding to the latest poll said they watched Monday's debate.

"The debate expectations for Clinton were set very high. A lot of people didn't think she would meet them. She exceeded them," Copeland said. "Clinton definitely had a good night."

Clinton ran a little stronger on debate-related questions than her overall support in the county. For example, nearly three-quarters - 73.3 percent - said she won the debate versus 19.3 percent for Trump.

Yet only about one-fourth of the respondents said the debate affected their likely vote. Other poll results relating to the debate included:

73.9 percent said Clinton spent more time discussing policy, versus 15.6 percent for Trump.

72.6 percent said Clinton expressed her views "more clearly" versus 18.1 percent for Trump.

69.7 percent said Clinton seemed to be "the stronger leader" versus 24.9 percent for Trump.

67.6 percent said Clinton was "more likable" versus 23.2 percent for Trump.

62 percent said Trump "spent more time attacking opponent" versus 21 percent for Clinton.

With only Clinton and Trump named as options - excluding the Johnson and Stein - Clinton's support grew from 62.5 percent in the first poll to 68.1 percent in the latest poll. Trump was 26 percent in both polls.

Gaining support

Among Clinton supporters, 55 percent said they would vote for her mainly because they liked her, up from 52 percent from the earlier poll.

Polling indicates, Copeland said, people believe Clinton would be a better role model for children, would fight harder for the middle class, would do better on combating terrorist threats home and abroad, and would be ready to lead the country on the first day in office.

"Hillary clearly had policies and plans she could reference," one person wrote in filling out the poll. "I still am unsure of Trump's plans."



Another commented: "Trump was so unprepared. Clinton had worked hard to prepare herself, and I am more confident of her ability to be a president."



Yet, Trump has his backers.



"I felt Mr. Trump showed strength of character," another person commented. "She on the other hand sounded weak," one person wrote.

Among Trump supporters, 44.5 percent said they were with him mainly because they liked him, up from 37.5 percent.

"Clinton picked up points from people who said they had been undecided. And I think she picked up some from people who had been been thinking about voting for third-party candidates," Copeland said.

<a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3115638/Cleveland-Com-Post-Debate-Poll-1-With-Weights.pdf">Cleveland-Com-Post-Debate-Poll-1-With-Weights (PDF)</a> <br /> <a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3115638/Cleveland-Com-Post-Debate-Poll-1-With-Weights.txt">Cleveland-Com-Post-Debate-Poll-1-With-Weights (Text)</a>

Battleground Cuyahoga will continue to monitor trends as Election Day nears.