2016 Election Night

Preliminary exit polls suggest that voters don’t feel great about the economy, but they feel a lot better than they did in either of the past two presidential elections. Some 62 percent of voters said the economy was “not good” or “poor,” down from 76 percent in 2012 and 93 percent in 2008. (Only 3 percent of voters consider the economy “excellent.”) Today’s voters aren’t as bullish as in 2004, when only a bit more than half of voters rated the economy negatively. Voters also feel a bit better about their personal financial situation. Thirty percent say their family’s finances have gotten better in the past year, while 27 percent say it’s gotten worse. In 2012, those numbers were 25 percent and 33 percent, respectively.