Poll: Plurality says Biden had stronger debate performance

A plurality of voters said Vice President Biden did better than Paul Ryan in the vice presidential debate on Thursday.

According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released Friday afternoon, 42 percent said Biden had the better performance during the debate while 35 percent picked Ryan.

About one quarter of registered voters and one third of independents said they were unsure of who did better during the debate, the poll also found.

Democrats seemed much happier with Biden's performance than with President Obama's performance when he squared off against Mitt Romney in the first of three presidential races about a week earlier. Obama praised Biden's performance as "terrific."

Meanwhile Republicans strongly criticized Biden for saying that the White House was unaware of requests by the State Department to increase security at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi before the consulate was attacked in September.

"We weren’t told they wanted more security. We did not know they wanted more security there," Biden said during the debate.

In response, Mitt Romney said Biden was "doubling down on denial."

The poll was conducted online among 629 registered voters. For who did better at the debate, the poll's margin of error was plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.