• Listen to this segment

Leading up to this November’s presidential election, a surprisingly small number of people have not decided who they are voting for. According to the New York Times, “the share of voters up for grabs this election is just 3-5 percent.” So-called “swing voters” are often described as “undecided” or “persuadable,” and are commonly known as “independents.”

GOP candidate Mitt Romney’s political director Rich Beeson says this year, “[t]here’s a very small slice of people who are genuinely undecided, but it’s enough to win the presidency.” The current decline in swing voters helps explain why Romney and Obama have stayed within just a few points of each other across many polls. More swing voters will be women than men this year, and many will be younger or will have not graduated from college. In three tossup states, Colorado, Florida, and Nevada, Latinos could make up as much as one-fifth of the swing vote. A Pew Research study found that four years ago, 33% of all registered voters were undecided. That number has shrunk down to 23%, at least as of April 2012. The economy was considered to be the most important factor for a majority of voters.

Undecided voters have traditionally been a crucial segment of the electorate. Independent voice.org states that, “independent voters have been the fastest growing segment of the electorate for the past 10 years. There are now 3.4 million Californians registered with no political party affiliation. Much of that growth has occurred in communities of color — particularly the Latino and Asian communities — and among young people. Nationally, 40% of Americans tell pollsters they are independents, rather than Democrats or Republicans.”

This year’s election campaigns will be engaging in a serious tug of war to win over even the substantially fewer independent voters using media strategies and ground operations. Yet, for all the money and resources that could be spent to persuade such voters, experts say that the attention could “prove unrequited.” The possibility that partisan voters will drive this election’s outcome raises the question of how much can independent voters minds be changed.

GUEST: Jim Mangia, President of IndependentVoice.org, the nation’s largest organization of independent voters

Visit www.independentvoice.org for more information.