Quinnipiac: Florida, North Carolina Too Close To Call

New polling indicates that the critical battleground states of Florida and North Carolina are currently too close to call on the eve of the presidential election. Both races could help tilt the outcome of the electoral college.

On Nov. 7, a new Quinnipiac University poll found that Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton holds a slim lead in both states with GOP nominee Donald Trump hot on her heels. 

In Florida, Clinton leads a four-way race with 46 percent support while Trump is right behind with 45 percent support. Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson and Green Party nominee Jill Stein account for four percent support combined.

Meanwhile, Clinton also leads North Carolina with 47 percent support while Trump garners 45 percent support. Johnson comes in third with three percent support.

Peter A. Brown, the assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll, commented that while the current electoral projections favor Clinton, both candidates should be nervous.

“As the 2016 presidential race hits the finish line, both Florida and North Carolina are virtual ties… There is no realistic scenario under which Trump can win the White House without those two states, while Clinton might get there without them, but it’s not a road she wants to travel,” Brown said.

Aggregating the last seven state polls released since Nov. 1, RealClearPolitics found that Clinton currently leads a four-way race in Florida by an average of 0.2 percentage points. Meanwhile, after aggregating the last five state polls released since Oct. 28, they found that Trump leads a three-way race in North Carolina by an average of 1.4 percentage points.

FiveThirtyEight, the polling website spearheaded by statistician Nate Silver, designates Florida as the single most important battleground state of the election while listing North Carolina as the third most important. 

The polling website currently projects Clinton to only have an 0.2 percent edge in both Florida and North Carolina. They project Clinton to win all of the remaining 10 most important battleground states except for Ohio, where they give Trump an edge of two percentage points.

Be sure to exercise your constitutional right to vote on Nov. 8.

Sources: FiveThirtyEight, Quinnipiac University Poll, RealClearPolitics (2) / Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore/Flickr