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Leading up to this November\u2019s presidential election, a surprisingly small number of people have not decided who they are voting for. According to the New York Times, \u201cthe share of voters up for grabs this election is just 3-5 percent.\u201d So-called \u201cswing voters\u201d are often described as \u201cundecided\u201d or \u201cpersuadable,\u201d and are commonly known as \u201cindependents.\u201d <\/p>\n
GOP candidate Mitt Romney\u2019s political director Rich Beeson says this year, \u201c[t]here\u2019s a very small slice of people who are genuinely undecided, but it\u2019s enough to win the presidency.\u201d 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. <\/p>\n
Undecided voters have traditionally been a crucial segment of the electorate. Independent voice.org states that, \u201cindependent 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 \u2014 particularly the Latino and Asian communities \u2014 and among young people. Nationally, 40% of Americans tell pollsters they are independents, rather than Democrats or Republicans.\u201d <\/p>\n
This year\u2019s 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 \u201cprove unrequited.\u201d The possibility that partisan voters will drive this election\u2019s outcome raises the question of how much can independent voters minds be changed. <\/p>\n