Poll: Hillary Clinton hypothetically defeats Donald Trump in 2016 presidential election by 3 percentage points

WASHINGTON, Sept. 14 (UPI) -- Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would hypothetically defeat real estate mogul Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election by three percentage points, a poll released Monday indicates.

Among registered voters, 46 percent would vote for Clinton, 43 percent would vote for Trump and the remaining 11 percent had no opinion, a Washington Post/ABC News poll showed.

Clinton would win 55 percent of female voters and Trump would win 52 percent of male voters. Trump would win 55 percent of voters with a high school diploma or less while Clinton would win voters with at least some college experience up to those with post-graduate diplomas.

Among all adults, 51 percent would vote for Clinton and 39 percent would vote for Trump. Of those polled, 35 percent identified themselves as independent, 33 percent as Democrats, 22 percent as Republicans, 5 percent as other and 4 percent had no opinion.

The poll, with a 3.5 percent margin of error, questioned 1,003 adults by telephone from Sept. 7 through Thursday.

Clinton is leading the polls for the Democratic presidential nomination with 44 percent, but Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has begun climbing the polls. He jumped ahead of Clinton in Iowa polls by 1 percent, where he was once down by nearly 10 percent.

Trump is leading the Republican presidential nomination with 30 percent in polls, according to averages by RealClearPolitics.