Almost a quarter of American voters would avoid voting or vote for a third party candidate, if the general election comes down to a showdown between Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump, a new poll has found.

The survey of 1,000  likely US voters conducted via telephone by Rasmussen Reports, indicated that 16 percent of likely voters would prefer to vote for a third party candidate and six percent would stay home in the event of a race between Clinton and Trump. Two percent said they were undecided.

The poll, however, showed that the two candidates were tied with 38 percent support each among likely voters.

Sixty-six percent of GOP voters said they would vote for Trump if he is the Republican nominee and 10 percent would support his Democratic rival, Clinton.

But if Clinton is the Democratic nominee, 75 percent of Democrats would support her, the figures show. Eleven percent, however, would support Trump and another eleven percent said they would vote third party and three percent prefer to stay home.

Trump leads Clinton among voters not affiliated with either of the Republican or Democratic parties.

Almost one-third of unaffiliated voters said they would either choose another candidate or stay home in an election between the two major candidates.

Ninety-one percent of Democratic respondents believe that Clinton is likely to be their nominee. Eighty-three percent of Republicans also see Trump as the nominee of their party.

Women and men are equally likely to say they would stay home or vote third party in the event of a Clinton-Trump race.

Trump, who has never held elected office, is currently leading the race for the Republican presidential nomination, despite his divisive rhetoric on several issues.

On the Democratic candidates, Clinton leads Senator Bernie Sanders in pledged delegates in the presidential primary race. Sanders, however, is still adamant that he wants to win the Democratic nomination for November's general election.