Biden expands lead over Trump to double digits: poll

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has expanded his national lead over President Trump to double digits, according to an NPR-PBS NewsHour-Marist poll released Friday. 

The former vice president received 53 percent of the vote in the poll, ahead of Trump’s 42 percent. In June, Biden held an 8-point lead over Trump.

The poll was mostly conducted prior to Biden announcing Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) as his vice presidential pick on Tuesday. 

Both Trump and Biden received relatively low favorability marks in the poll. Thirty-five percent of those surveyed said they view Trump favorably, while 42 percent said the same of Biden.

Biden also did significantly better than Trump among voters who said they disliked both candidates, with 52 percent saying they would vote for the former vice president, compared to 33 percent who said they would vote for Trump.

In 2016, exit polls found Trump did well among voters who said they disliked then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

Half of all respondents said they will cast their votes in person, up from 38 percent who said the same in May, while 43 percent said they will mail in their ballots, down from 50 percent in May. Biden supporters were significantly more likely to plan to vote by mail than Trump supporters.

The NPR-PBS NewsHour-Marist poll was conducted among 1,118 registered voters Aug. 8-11 and reported a margin of error of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points.