washington<u+2014>after eight years of democratic rule, four in 10 voters said they wanted the next president to bring <u+201c>needed change.<u+201d> among them, republican donald trump overwhelmingly won, exit polls showed. mr. trump also won among those who called themselves dissatisfied or angry with the federal government, and those who expect life to be worse for the next generation of americans. but the exit poll results also carry a warning for the gop nominee. about seven in 10 voters said they were bothered by accusations regarding his treatment of women . a smaller, though still substantial, share of voters<u+2014>about six in 10 of those surveyed<u+2014>said they were bothered by democratic nominee hillary clinton <u+2019>s use of private email while running the state department. capital journal is wsj.com<u+2019>s home for election 2016 news. the exit polls were conducted by edison research on behalf of the national election pool, a consortium of tv networks and the associated press. the incomplete results included surveys of 23,583 people leaving polling places or early voters surveyed by phone. the results, which may change as more surveys are reported, showed mr. trump with a coalition of white voters, men and those without a college degree. he managed to do slightly better than 2012 republican nominee mitt romney with white voters without a college degree. but he performed much worse than mr. romney did with college-educated voters. mr. romney won college-educated white voters by 14 percentage points; mr. trump won them by one point. mrs. clinton<u+2019>s coalition was made up of women, minorities and college graduates, but she appears to have fallen short of president barack obama <u+2019>s support levels among young voters. as in 2012, the democratic nominee won a large share of the hispanic, african-american and other minority voters. it leaves the republican party with a growing demographic problem, as the portion of white voters continued to fall as a share of the overall electorate. the incomplete results showed a nation divided over issues including trade, health care and the role of government, though there was more agreement on immigration than one might expect after a campaign where the two sides voiced such different points of view. voters overwhelmingly supported giving undocumented immigrants the chance to apply for legal status and opposed the idea of building a wall along the border with mexico, rejecting central planks of donald trump<u+2019>s candidacy. when asked about what qualities matter most, about four in 10 people picked the ability to bring about change, and mr. trump won more than 80% of their votes. mrs. clinton was heavily favored by voters who put more value on someone who <u+201c>cares about people like me,<u+201d> has good judgment and, especially, has the right experience. the surveys found a country pessimistic about the state of the u.s. economy, with some six in 10 calling it not so good or poor. still, that was less gloomy than views four years ago, when exit polls from the 2012 election found 77% of people with those views. the exit polls show the campaign ended the way it began: with two unpopular candidates. about 44% said they had a favorable view of mrs. clinton, and just 38% had a favorable view of mr. trump. on election day 2012, both mr. obama and mr. romney had higher ratings than that. more than half of voters said mrs. clinton was qualified to serve as president, and more than half said she had the right temperament for the job. only about a third of the electorate said the same of mr. trump. in atlanta<u+2019>s predominantly african-american west side, korey felder, 31 years old, said he voted for mrs. clinton because donald trump isn<u+2019>t fit to be president. <u+201c>no matter how many fumbles she<u+2019>s made, she<u+2019>s been there before,<u+201d> he said. <u+201c>she knows how the job is done. in business, the person with the most experience gets the job. that<u+2019>s just how it is.<u+201d> but in orange county, calif., 53-year-old lupe morales said this election is <u+201c>our last chance to save the country.<u+201d> asked who he chose for president, he emphatically said, <u+201c>i voted for trump.<u+201d> a large share of voters<u+2014>more than six in 10<u+2014>said the three presidential debates were important to their decision on which candidate to back, and a majority of that group favored mrs. clinton. mr. trump won those who said the debates didn<u+2019>t matter. seven in 10 voters called the supreme court an important factor in their vote, with exit polls showing people on both sides care about the court. these voters divided about evenly between the candidates. mr. trump built his campaign around opposition to illegal immigration, promising to build a <u+201c>big, beautiful wall<u+201d> with mexico, and he said the estimated 11 million people living in the u.s. illegally would be subject to deportation. those positions resonated with many republican voters, but not with the broader electorate. early exit polls found seven in 10 voters favored offering most illegal immigrants the chance to apply for legal status, versus only about a quarter of voters who wanted most of them deported to the country they came from. more than half of voters said they opposed the idea of building a wall on the southern border, with four in 10 supporting the idea. support for this liberalized immigration policy appears to have grown over the last four years, during which congress tried and failed to pass legislation giving legal status to illegal immigrants. in 2012 exit polls, 65% said they favored legal status, versus 28% who favored deportation. throughout her campaign, mrs. clinton promised to immediately propose legislation offering a path to citizenship for those here illegally. absent that, she said she would try to expand president barack obama<u+2019>s executive actions giving millions work permits and safe harbor from deportation. she won the backing of six in 10 voters who wanted to let immigrants stay, while mr. trump took eight out of 10 who wanted deportation. the strong support for a more liberal immigration policy stands in contrast to american views on many other policy areas, where exit polls show the public is more evenly divided. <u+200b><u+200b> on another key issue in the trump campaign, about four in 10 voters said trade with other countries creates more u.s. jobs, and about four in 10 said it takes away jobs, with the rest seeing no effect. and the nation appears to remain evenly divided on health care, with about half saying the affordable care act didn<u+2019>t go far enough or was about right, and half saying it went too far. mr. trump won the support of most of the voters who have an with unfavorable views of trade, while mrs. clinton won most of the voters who support the health law. on the question of the nation<u+2019>s criminal-justice system, a larger share of voters said the system treats black people unfairly, and those voters heavily favored mrs. clinton. on the flip side, more than half the public said the u.s. wasn<u+2019>t doing well in the fight against islamic state, and those voters heavily favored mr. trump. as is typically the case, most voters called the economy the most important issue facing the country. they backed mrs. clinton by a solid majority. she also won the support of voters who cared most about foreign policy. but mr. trump picked up the lion<u+2019>s share of voters who were most concerned with immigration or terrorism. in recent weeks, mr. trump has stoked fears that election would be rigged, but 83% of voters surveyed said they were confident the votes in their states would be counted accurately. among the slice who didn<u+2019>t, most favored mr. trump. write to laura meckler at laura.meckler@wsj.com
exit polls 2016: voters show a deep hunger for change - wsj
laura meckler