Voters say Clinton won the debate, but impact is still unclear

The latest evidence comes from an NBC/SurveyMonkey poll that found more than half of likely voters viewed Clinton as the winner of thetelevised debate. About 1 in 5 voters said Trump had won, and one-quarter said neither did.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — More than half a dozen polls show that voters say Hillary Clinton won Monday night’s debate against Donald Trump, but it’s still too early to know how much impact that will have on the candidates’ standings.

The latest evidence comes from an NBC/SurveyMonkey poll that found more than half of likely voters viewed Clinton as the winner of the televised debate. About 1 in 5 voters said Trump had won, and one-quarter said neither did.

The survey showed that the debate helped Clinton solidify her support among fellow Democrats. It also found a majority of voters said that she has the temperament to serve as president. By contrast, more than 60 percent of voters said that Trump does not have the temperament for the job.

Similar results about who won the debate have come from polls by CNN, YouGov and other polling organizations. The YouGov poll, for example, showed voters saying 57 percent-30 percent that Clinton won.

Trump and his supporters repeatedly have cited what they refer to as polls that show him as the winner. The surveys they point to, however, are not scientific polls that try to get a representative sample of the population. Instead, they are so-called opt-in surveys, which measure the reactions of anyone who chooses to participate.

Whether Clinton’s advantage in the debate has given her a boost in the race won’t be known for sure for a few more days.

A survey released Wednesday by Morning Consult, which has been regularly polling the race, found a 4-point swing in Clinton’s direction.

A second poll released Wednesday, by Echelon Insights, a Republican firm, showed her leading Trump by 5 points. But the firm hadn’t polled the race since July, so it’s unclear if that result represented a post-debate improvement for Clinton.

A USC/LA Times “Daybreak” tracking poll of the election still shows Trump with about a 4-point lead. But the Daybreak poll uses a seven-day average, so nearly all of the data currently come from polling done before the debate.