Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s lead over her Republican rival Donald Trump is down to just four points nationwide, according to a Pew Research Center survey released Thursday.
The poll also includes Libertarian Gary Johnson and Green Party candidate Jill Stein, noted the Politico website.
41 percent of the registered voters reached by Pew said they would vote for Clinton if the election were held today or are leaning in her direction, while 37 percent said the same of Trump.
The former Secretary of State's 4-point lead over Trump represents a dip from the 9-point advantage of 45 percent to 36 percent that she held in a Pew poll conducted in late June, although that survey did not include Stein as an option.
Johnson and Stein, who would need to hit 15 percent in certain polls in order to qualify for the general election debates, came in at 10 percent and 4 percent, respectively, in the latest survey.
The Pew poll is not one of the five being used as criteria by the Commission on Presidential Debates to determine which candidates qualify, noted Politico.
Trump’s struggles with female voters are well-documented and continue in the poll released Thursday. Women registered to vote prefer Clinton by a 19-point margin, 49 percent to 30 percent. With men who are registered to vote, Trump holds a smaller, 12-point lead over Clinton, 45 percent to 33 percent.
Support among registered voters for Clinton and Trump also splits along education lines. Respondents with a college degree preferred the former Secretary of State to the Manhattan businessman by a 13-point margin of 47 percent to 34 percent, while those with a postgraduate degree backed Clinton by an even bigger 38-point spread over Trump.
87 percent of those who said they either support Trump or are leaning his way are white, while 5 percent said they are Hispanic and just 1 percent said they are black. Those who favored Clinton in the poll were 59 percent white, 24 percent black and 10 percent Hispanic.
The Pew poll is the latest reflection of the fluctuations in polls in recent days and weeks. Late last week, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found that Clinton had increased her lead over Trump to more than 7 percentage points, while a Reuters/Ipsos poll released a week earlier had found Clinton with a lead of 3 points.
A poll of particular interest from earlier this week relates specifically to the support for Trump and Clinton in the key state of Florida.
The Monmouth University poll released on Tuesday found that Clinton has opened up a 9-point lead over her Republican rival in Florida.
Trump is trailing in most battleground states and it will be very difficult for him to win the election without Florida’s 29 electoral votes.
But, despite the latest poll results, the game is far from over for the Republican nominee. Click here for an analysis.