An informative look at 44,000 "undecided voters"

[grantcart]

http://www.npr.org/2012/10/20/163309696/the-undecided-voter-just-like-the-unicorn

"The premise is wrong," Vavreck tells Guy Raz, host of weekends on All Things Considered. "It isn't that they're looking at Mitt Romney and looking at Barack Obama and weighing them. They're not looking yet."

She gives the example of a working single mother, balancing her job and home duties. For her, 20 days until the election is an eternity.

....

Lynn Vavreck, a political scientist from UCLA, has tracked a group of 44,000 self-described undecided voters all year, measuring who remains undecided in the presidential election. She says these kinds of voters are just less than 4 percent of the electorate, and that there have been many misconceptions surrounding this group and their power to tip the election

....


Since July, undecided voters have been "as a whole breaking for Obama," Vavreck says.

"About 60 percent of undecided voters are women," she says, "and women undecided voters who have made up their minds are breaking heavily for the president — 75 percent for Obama, 25 percent for Romney."

In key swing states — Virginia, Florida, Ohio, Iowa, New Mexico and Colorado — the number of undecided voters comes out to about 900,000 people.

[fugop]

1. Women: smarter than the GOP thinks

[Kalidurga]

2. I remember being one of those undecideds.

I was in college, had two toddlers, had to be on the bus for about an hour getting kids to daycare in the morning and an hour at night to pick them up and get home. Then of course they were cranky and hungry so I had to make dinner. Then I had to study for a couple of hours. Then I had to if I had the energy to pick up after them and get them to bed. I was lucky if I had time to see the news, it was a rarity. I didn't have time to socialize, so everything I knew came from the newspaper I would read between classes, that is if I had time and wasn't studying or catching up on an assignment.

[TeamPooka]

3. Vavreck was on UP with Chris Hayes yesterday morning saying the same thing..

the flow of undecideds is going to the President.
Period.

[kansasobama]

4. Chances are extremely high they never will vote

I know they are busy but in my experience they end up bagging it altogether. There are so many avenues now and I doubt if that is the only reason. They are not into the political systems and are busy managing their lives. They also do not see any difference in the parties and are low information voters. Also, if they decide to vote, in Dem states they end up voting Democratic and in Rep states they end up voting Rep. In toss-ups, they tend to break slightly for the challenger but not a lot (if they decide to vote).

In my state, many undecideds who are actually at a disadvantage under Romney plans and the State Republican plans always vote Republican blindly. You will be shocked. They will say so many things and you might wonder "oh, these are Obama voters" and then wham..."I will vote for Romney." Very frustrating....

[grantcart]

5. that is why early voting is so important for Democrats. Each one that votes locks in someone from

a more "unstable" category of voter. Republican early votes tend to be simply reshuffling election day voters.

[grantcart]

6. kick