"A modest majority of Americans continue to favor changing the way presidents are elected," the pollster said on Wednesday. "Fifty five percent in the new poll say the system should be changed so that the winner of the popular vote nationwide wins the presidency, while 43 percent favor keeping the Electoral College system."
The current balance of opinion is little changed over the last few years and attitudes about the Electoral College remain deeply divided along partisan lines, the release said.
Younger adults were more willing to change the system than older people: 60 percent aged 18 to 29 wanted reform compared to only 51 percent of those 65 or older, the poll found.
"Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents – especially liberal Democrats – say they would prefer changing the system to be based on the popular vote (71 percent of Democrats, including 82 percent of liberal Democrats, say this)," the release said.
Republicans and Republican-leaning voters, especially conservative Republicans, prefer keeping the current system where the winner of the Electoral College takes office with 61 percent overall, including 71 percent of conservative Republicans, taking that view, the poll found.