Undecideds

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People keep saying undecideds usually break for the incumbent. Perhaps that's technically true, but there's a few things to keep in mind:

  • In 2000, while Gore was not the incumbent, he represented incumbency to most people, to a large degree, and undecideds broke to him (Bush led by about 4% in polls, going into election day, and Gore had more votes nationwide by 0.5%).
  • We usually have a lot more undecideds, and the number by which undecideds break for the incumbent (about 2/3 to 3/4) is the approximate number undecideds are fewer now than in 2000 (was 7% in 2000, is 3% now).
  • One of the major reasons undecideds break for the challenger is because people decide that they just want change (this is probably why they broke for Gore in 2000, because the felt we did NOT need change), but security concerns changes all that math.
  • We have less reason to grant credibility to the polls this year than any year before, anyway.


Just some random thoughts in my noggin' ... it will be interesting to see the results of polls vs actual results. slashdot.org

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