The ‘undecided voter’ must be a myth

by J Scott Christianson, Columbia Daily Tribune Columnist

At each presidential debate, the news channels corral a group of undecided voters, arm them with special remotes that instantaneously record their positive or negative reactions and then track the results to see which way they are leaning in response to various remarks. Graphed in real time across the bottom of the screen, you can tell what messages are resonating and which are a turn-off.

While this is a fascinating study in how language can affect opinion, my main question is: Who the heck are these undecided voters? After what seems like three years of campaigning, advertising, policy debates, phone calls, door hangers and news coverage, how can anyone be undecided at this point?

Regardless of their ambivalence toward the two tickets, the undecided voters seem determined to make it to the polls on Nov. 4. What they lack in decisiveness, they are apparently trying to make up by being punctual.

And with the presidential race being so tight — combined with the way the electoral college system can magnify a small margin of victory in a few states into a clear electoral win — the media are focusing on undecided voters as the ones who will determine the outcome of the election.

Approximately 5 to 10 percent of the likely voters in the so-called “battleground” states claim to be undecided. Undecided voters are different than independent voters — voters who don’t naturally have strong party…