The poll's results found that Clinton would beat the current Republican frontrunners for the nomination, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Gov. Chris Christie, R-N.J., in 2016. Voters favored Clinton over Christie, 37.1 percent to 32.3 percent. She also led Rubio 44.3 percent to 33.2 percent. In both races, many voters said they were undecided.
As the election draws closer, the numbers of undecided voters is likely to decrease, Michael Altamirano '13, data analyst for the Rockefeller Center, said in an email.
"Given that the 2016 presidential election is nearly 42 months away, it is not surprising that the theoretical presidential match-ups received a large percentage of unsure' responses," he said.
Katherine Schade '13, another data analyst, said Clinton's name recognition boosted her numbers.
"Clinton is one of the few people who has widespread name recognition as a possible 2016 candidate," Schade said. "Everyone else was more of a question mark, which is why I suspect she did a good job."
The State of the State poll is meant to show a specific snapshot in time, reflecting how New Hampshire residents currently feel. Schade said the poll will not necessarily predict the eventual results because each party's nominee may not have even been mentioned in the poll. With the next presidential election still a few years away, the landscape of candidates remains unclear.
The poll found that Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., would defeat former Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., by a large margin in the 2014 U.S. Senate race. Over 44 percent of voters would support Shaheen, while only 29 percent would support Brown, the poll found. If Shaheen ran against State Senate Majority Leader Jeb Bradley, R-Wolfeboro, meanwhile, she would receive nearly 48 percent of the vote to Bradley's 25 percent. While 46 percent of respondents held favorable opinions of Shaheen, 22 percent indicated that they held an unfavorable opinion of her.
Shaheen's colleague, Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., saw her unfavorable ratings rise to 31 percent from 24 percent in 2012.
Schade said Ayotte's increased unfavorable ratings likely stemmed from Ayotte's vote against a recent Senate bill to expand gun background checks.
"To see the change in her ratings was really interesting," Schade said. "What happened wasn't that her favorability ratings fell, but that a large percentage of people who were unsure about her began to feel unfavorably."
Overall, 76 percent of those polled supported universal background checks for firearms. Among those who expressed a political affiliation, 88 percent of self-identified Democrats supported the background checks, compared to 63 percent of Republicans. The poll found that 32 percent of New Hampshire residents who support universal background checks expressed an unfavorable opinion of Ayotte.
The poll found that New Hampshire residents have a more favorable opinion of President Barack Obama than they have had in the past. His approval rating rose to 44.8 percent from 39.2 percent in 2012, while his disapproval rating fell to 42.1 percent from last year's 48.1 percent.
A majority of respondents had either a neutral opinion of Gov. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., or could not express an opinion of her. Of those who had an opinion of Hassan, 31 percent of voters said they felt positively about her, while 15 percent held an unfavorable opinion.
The poll found that a majority of New Hampshire voters believe the national economy is improving, with 62.3 percent considering economic conditions to be "excellent," "good" or "fair" up from 53.9 percent in 2012. A majority of respondents said that the best way to solve the federal deficit would be to simultaneously raise taxes and cut spending.
Altamarino said he did not find any significant changes in trends between this year's and last year's poll.
The poll plays a large role in experts' state and national political predictions, Shaiko said.
"Our results have already been picked up by many national media outlets and websites and have developed some Twitter traffic as well," he said.
Shaiko said more than 30 Dartmouth students helped organize and conduct the poll, which had a margin of error of 4.7 percent.
