French voters will choose their next president in a runoff on Sunday between centrist ex-Socialist Emmanuel Macron and far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen. Macron led Le Pen 24-21 in the first round, with conservative candidate François Fillon and radical-leftist Jean-Luc Melenchon both at 20 and Socialist Benoît Hamon at 6. Fillon and Hamon quickly endorsed Macron, while Melenchon told his supporters not to vote for Le Pen. The Huffpost Pollster average for the runoff projects Macron beating Le Pen 61-39 in round two, and for what it’s worth, the polls were dead on target in the first round.
Voting ends between 1 PM and 2 PM ET, and we should know the preliminary winner very soon thereafter. French “exit polls” are conducted by statistically sampling a large number of actual precinct results that are then weighted to past results and other variables, producing preliminary results that typically come very close to projecting the final results, as happened in April’s first round.
Results: New York Times
Sunday, May 7, 2017 · 6:16:23 PM +00:00
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David Beard
French exit polls project that Macron will win with 65-66% of the vote. This 30%+ margin is larger than polls had predicted, and will make Emmanuel Macron the youngest ever president of France. While Le Pen ended up well under the 40% number that many were using as a measuring stick, this was still the National Front’s best ever showing in a presidential vote.