Most Republicans shrug at Cain allegations, according to poll

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain has spent the week battling accusations that he sexually harassed female employees while he was president of the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s. But according to the first major poll released since the story broke on Sunday, most Republican-leaning voters say the new revelations have not changed their opinion of the candidate.

In a Washington Post-ABC News poll conducted since the first story was published, 70 percent of the Republicans said that the allegations would not change their voting decision. Twenty-three percent said the story made them less likely to support him and 4 percent said they were now more likely.

The poll found that more than half said the allegations against Cain were "not serious" while about 40 percent of both GOP voters and independents who lean Republican said they felt that the allegations were "serious." Specifics of the incidents remain yet to be reported, so that number could rise or fall depending on the severity of the details that eventually surface around the accusations.

Alnd despite the allegations, Cain remains statistically tied nationally with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

The poll surveyed 1,004 nationally by phone, including a sample of 438 Republicans and GOP-leaning independents from Oct. 31 through Nov. 3. The margin of error is plus or minus 5 percentage points for the subsequent group.

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