Majority of Voters Want Donald Trump to Release Tax Returns: Poll

A new poll shows over half of voters think it’s a least somewhat important that presidential candidates release their tax returns, signaling voters want to see what Donald Trump’s returns reveal.

A new Monmouth University poll shows 62% of voters think it’s either very important or somewhat important to them that candidates release their returns; some 54%of Clinton supporters think it’s very important. Thirty-six percent of voters, however, say it’s not important. It’s worth noting, too, that nearly three-fourths of voters, 72%, know Trump hasn’t yet released his returns, but only 56% of voters know that Clinton has released hers.

Trump’s Democratic rival Hillary Clinton has been calling for Trump to release his tax returns, a customary practice among presidential nominees, since early in the general election season. But Trump hasn’t budged, saying he won’t release his returns while he’s under audit. According to the poll, many voters question Trump’s reasoning with 52% speculating the returns show something the candidate may not want voters to know. Only 24% of voters believe the audit is holding him back.

Clinton also faced scrutiny from voters over reports that she met with Clinton Foundation donors during her time as Secretary of State. Fifty-four percent of voters believe donors to her family’s nonprofit were given special treatment.

The new Monmouth poll shows voters have highly unfavorable opinions of both party nominees, with 35% of voters saying they do not have a favorable opinion of either candidate. Hillary Clinton is viewed slightly less unfavorably than Trump (34% have a favorable opinion of her compared to 26% for Trump), though 51% of voters do not like her. Fifty-seven percent of voters do not like Trump.

The poll still shows Clinton with a slight lead over Trump with 46% of likely voters saying they’ll cast their ballots for the former Secretary of State in November and 39% saying they’ll back Trump. The poll shows a slight drop in the 13-point lead Clinton had earlier in August.

The Monmouth University poll was conducted via telephone between Aug. 25 and Aug. 28; 802 registered voters were interviewed and it has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.