Clinton. | AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall Washington Post poll: Clinton ahead by 5

Hillary Clinton is leading Donald Trump nationally by 5 percentage points among likely voters, according to the latest Washington Post/ABC poll.

Clinton leads Trump 46 percent to 41 percent in a four-way race that also includes Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson (9 percent) and Green Party nominee Jill Stein (2 percent). Among registered voters, her lead is slightly greater, 45 percent to Trump’s 35 percent.


Though the race remains somewhat fluid, the poll found that voters are growing more decisive about their choices, with 79 percent of Clinton supporters saying they will “definitely” vote for her and 81 percent of Trump supporters saying the same of him. Still, those numbers are lower than they were at a comparable time in 2012.

Trump has a more devoted bedrock of support; among registered voters, just 33 percent of Clinton supporters say they are “very enthusiastic” about voting for her, versus 46 percent for him. (At the same time in the 2008 race, 64 percent of Barack Obama’s supporters said they were “very enthusiastic” about voting for him.)

Despite her single-digit lead over Trump, a far greater percentage of voters still think Clinton will win the election — 58 percent to 29 percent. But only about a third of those now think her victory will be easy.

The Post and ABC conducted the poll Sept. 5-8, using cellular and landline phones to reach a random national sample of 1,002 adults. The margin of error for the sample of 642 likely voters is plus or minus 4.5 points; for the sample of 842 registered voters, it is 4 points.

