Will Sanders supporters vote for Clinton?

Updated
Bernie Sanders New York City Rally
Bernie Sanders New York City Rally

As Wednesday's massive rally in New York and Thursday heated Democratic debate proved, the Democratic nominee is not as "inevitable" as politicians once predicted.

"When we began this campaign almost a year ago, we started off at 3 percent in the polls. We were about 70 points behind Secretary Clinton. In the last couple of weeks, there were two polls out there that had us ahead," Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders raved in Thursday's debate.

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As Sanders has collected supporters in the primary process, he's also earned a growing chorus of those who wouldn't even be willing to vote for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. This development has happened even as both Sanders and Clinton have publicly claimed each would make a better president than any of the Republican choices.

A poll taken last month found one in three Sanders supporters wouldn't be willing to back Clinton.

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But when the AOL News team went to the Sanders rally in New York City this week, we got a different story.

Our random sampling of attendees at the rally included more than a dozen diehard who were "feeling the Bern," but only one person told us they wouldn't be willing to cast a vote for Clinton come November if Sanders weren't an option. Two others told us they weren't sure what they would do.

More photos from Sanders' NYC Washington Square rally

"It's Bernie or bust!" one passionate woman told us. "That's it. I'm not voting for [Clinton]."

Another supporter said she hasn't "really completely decided yet," adding that her vote "could go to the Green party."

But we heard from a lot of people who said they could get behind Clinton.

"I'm not an idiot. I'm still gonna vote for Hillary Clinton," one young man said. "Lesser of two evils here. I'm not gonna say I'm one of the votes that responsible for Donald Trump being in office."

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