Trump may not do well in battleground states: expert

Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump may fail in key Pennsylvanian states.

New York, Oct 26: Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump may not perform well in key battleground states of Pennsylvania, Ohio and even in his home state of New York and his rival Hillary Clinton has a stronger chance to emerge victorious there, an expert has said.

Director in the City University of New York Mapping Service at The Center for Urban Research Steven Romalewski said at a session organized by the New York Foreign Press Centre here that Pennsylvania, with 20 electoral college votes, is pretty substantial and is "considered learning towards Hillary Clinton."

Romalewski said Pennsylvania has voted for Democrats at the presidential level for the past three elections.

"This year, in some ways, it's kind of beside the point in a way to think how are these different demographic groupings and sub-populations going to vote and what that is going to do overall because it's kind of a unique election, mainly because of the GOP candidate, Donald Trump, who has performed very poorly and did well in his primary elections, but has really shown himself to be less than a worthy candidate of the presidency," he said.

While it is hard to predict the final result, "it's likely that Clinton will do well" in Pennsylvania, he said. In Ohio, a crucial electoral state, Romalewski said the polling indicates that it is kind of a "dead heat" between Trump and Clinton.

"...But I think again, because of past elections and the patterns of this so-called Trump demographic, I think it is likely that he is not going to do well enough in that state," he said. Romalewski added that Clinton is expected to win New York, which while is not a battleground or swing state, is the home state of both the candidates. New York overall has voted for Democrats at the presidential level for several elections in a row and "it is almost a certainty that Clinton is going to win New York," he said.

On the voter fraud allegations being leveled by Trump, Romalewski said it is almost nonexistent when it comes to in-person elections.

"I think that is a red herring that Trump has brought up, and I think a lot of his supporters have pointed that out as well," he said.

Battleground states, also called swing states, are those where the two major US political parties, Repblican and Democratic, have similar levels of support among voters.

PTI