NBC News Exit Poll: Honesty Vs. Temperament

This election has been marked by intense focus on character, with each campaign trying to paint the other candidate as unfit to serve as president due to a fundamental character flaw.

For the Trump campaign, the drumbeat has focused on whether Clinton is honest and trustworthy. His message stems in part from her long history as a lightning rod for conservative ire and is fueled by the on-again, off-again FBI inquiry into Clinton’s use of a private email server while secretary of state, which roiled the final two weeks of the campaign.

Indeed, nearly six in 10 voters interviewed in NBC Exit Polls so far today say that Clinton is not honest and trustworthy. Slightly more than one-third say she is. 

But views of Donald Trump’s honesty are equally negative.  Roughly a third of voters nationwide say Trump is honest and trustworthy; nearly two-thirds say that he is not.

Even among each candidate’s own voters, about one-quarter say they don’t think their candidate is honest.

Clinton and her surrogates on the campaign trail have spent much of the campaign raising questions about whether Trump has the right temperament to serve as president of the United States, particularly in times of crisis. If elected, Trump would be the first modern-era president with no prior experience in either elected office or military command. Trump’s unfiltered and inflammatory remarks on the campaign trail have fueled questions about his judgment and temperament to handle the difficult crises that a president could face.

Clinton clearly comes out ahead with voters when it comes to questions of temperament. NBC News Exit Poll results show that a majority of voters so far today say Clinton has the right temperament to serve effectively as president. 

But most voters have negative views of Trump’s temperament – more than six in 10 among those interviewed thus far. Just 34 percent say he has the temperament to serve effectively as president.

Even among Trump’s voters, about one-fourth question his temperament.

Meet the NBC News Exit Poll Desk Team

Throughout Election Night, a team of survey research analysts will be crunching the numbers on who voted, what issues were on their minds and why they voted the way they did.

The team includes Stephanie Psyllos, manager of exit polling, NBC News; Scott Keeter, senior survey advisor at Pew Research Center; Courtney Kennedy, director of survey research at Pew Research Center; Cary Funk, associate director of research at Pew Research Center; Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute; Maureen Michaels, president of Michaels Opinion Research Inc.; Mara Ostfeld, postdoctoral fellow, Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan; Patrick Egan, associate professor of politics and public policy at New York University; Hannah Hartig, assistant director, University of Pennsylvania's Program on Opinion Research and Election Studies; Jennifer Su, senior project director, Princeton Survey Research Associates International; and Andrew Arenge, assistant producer, NBC News. The NBC News Exit Poll Desk works closely with digital editors David Taintor and Elizabeth Johnstone to curate the stories we produce.