Bernie Sanders’ supporters should not be counted on for a Hillary Clinton vote in the general election if she ends up winning the Democratic nomination. In a recent poll by Politico, one-quarter of Sanders’ supporters said they would not vote for Hillary even if Sanders is not on the ballot. With Hillary’s upcoming push to discredit Bernie, a move the HRC campaign is reportedly making plans to reunite the party later, that number is expected to increase.

While it might not seem like an overwhelming amount of Bernie supporters who refuse to vote for Hillary should she win the Democratic nomination, 25% is actually a staggering number. Especially when compared to the number of Hillary supporters who say they won’t vote for Sanders should he win the nomination in the fall. Just 14% of HRC supporters say they will refuse to vote for Bernie. So if the Democratic party is looking for the most unifying candidate, isn’t it time to turn to Bernie Sanders?

Poll: 25 percent of Sanders voters would shun Clinton. Only 14 percent of Clinton supporters would not back Sanders https://t.co/AFdZjwpeEs — C B Scheel (@CBScheel) April 6, 2016

Here’s the thing, the poll was conducted at the end of March so it’s not that old but there were only 1,066 registered voters who took part. An informal poll run in many of the Bernie Sanders support groups on social media paints a totally different picture. In multiple Facebook groups, including Bernie Believers and Bernie Sanders Is My Hero, when supporters are asked if they would support HRCin an instance where Sanders didn’t get the Democratic nomination, the answer is a resounding no. Most Bernie supporters say they would either opt to write in their candidate of choice or vote for someone else entirely. On social media, Sanders’ supporters in large part refuse to vote for Hillary, a move that could easily change the landscape of the entire 2016 presidential election.

With his current winning streak. which happens to be seven of the last eight states in the United States, Bernie is on fire right now and HRC’s previous lead is dwindling. According to another recent poll, despite Clinton’s current lead with delegates, Sanders is enjoying a lead in the popular vote by a very small margin. The Washington Post recently reported on Clinton’s claims that she has 2.5 million more votes than Sanders and it looks like that number was figured based on some very “liberal” math.

.@HillaryClinton: “There is a persistent, organized effort to misrepresent my record, and I don’t appreciate that” https://t.co/KtKhooG7GP — POLITICO (@politico) April 6, 2016

Rather than counting up all the votes from all the states that primaries have been held in so far, it seems that Clinton’s team is only counting popular vote states. The caucus states, which Sanders has overwhelmingly won, were left out. That makes a huge difference when talking about popularity and who has the most votes. It can’t just be an issue of counting caucus votes versus counting popular votes though because if that were the case, Clinton wouldn’t have counted the caucuses from American Samoa and the Northern Marianas, two very small areas that she won.It was only the states that Bernie won that were left out of the statistic claiming that she was ahead by 2.5 million. [Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images]

Bernie Sanders’ campaign manager Jeff Weaver recently said that Sanders still has plenty of room to win the Democratic nomination. “We are certainly in this to win it,” said Weaver, “and there is a path to do so.” Clinton currently leads Sanders in delegates with 1,243 to 975 according to the New York Times. The Democratic nominee needs 2,383 delegates in order to clinch the nomination, meaning there is still plenty of time for Sanders to catch up to HRC before the primaries are over. Naturally, those in support of Hillary still believe she will retain the lead until the bitter end.

[Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images]