Hillary Clinton maintains a significant edge over Donald Trump in their bitter battle to snare the 270 electoral votes needed to ascend to the White House as President Obama's successor.

A recent Freedom Lighthouse poll finds the former first lady topping Trump 217 electoral votes to 180 with 141 votes still too close to call.

Clinton's Formula

Among the states found to be solidly backing Clinton are California, Washington, Oregon, Hawaii, Connecticut, Delaware, New Mexico, Minnesota, Illinois, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, D.C. and Rhode Island.

Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina, Florida and Maine are all still considered too close to call.

Trump leads in Montana, Idaho, Utah, Arkansas, North Dakota. South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Indiana, Kentucky, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and West Virginia.

Pennsylvania Critical

Meanwhile, a recent Morning Call/Muhlenberg College poll shows Clinton clobbering Trump by nine points in the bellwether state of Pennsylvania, which has gone for a Democrat in each of the last six presidential elections.

Conducted between Sept. 12-16, the survey of likely voters pits Clinton at 47 percent to 38 percent for Trump. When third-party candidates Gary Johnson (Libertarian Party) and Jill Stein (Green Party) are added to the mix, pollsters find Clinton maintaining an eight percent cushion at 40 percent to 32 percent.

A demographic breakdown of voting projections across the state show Clinton leading among women and college-educated voters. At a recent democratic rally, about 100 Latinos protesters also showed up to condemn Trump and republicans.

Trump launched his campaign by deriding Mexican immigrants as criminals and recently doubled down on his vow to commence deportations "during his first hour in office.

"Those are all cornerstones of Pennsylvania electoral math, and right now, he's lagging in all of those areas," said Chris Borick, director of the Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion, which conducted the state poll of 405 likely general election voters.

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