What does it take to get a voter to decide how to vote in a specific race? The easy answer is: Election Day. There are always some people who are undecided until the moment they cast a ballot and the upcoming election seems to have plenty of undecided voters. The question on the minds of campaigners is: what does it take to get a voter to make a decision?
Most of the races on Californian’s ballots are runoffs or general elections, meaning that these candidates have been on the trail for, at least, a year. Voters have received a ton of mailers, watched tens of millions in TV advertising, digital ads pop up everywhere, and then we have text messages, emails, phone calls, and door knocks. Not to mention that candidates have hosted all types of events along with politically active organizations, which have organized candidate forums, outreach events, and all types of “meet & greets”. Yet, a significant number of voters remain undecided.
For example, in San Diego County’s race for a new Sheriff, 1/3 of voters remain undecided according to a poll released on October 25 and reported in the San Diego Union Tribune. The poll showed both candidates are close.
We also see a large undecided number in the L.A. City mayor’s race where the latest poll shows about 24% are undecided. Maybe pollsters should ask, if a voter is truly undecided or if they don’t like either choice? Maybe some voters have found a way to ignore all the campaign outreach attempts and are simply undecided because they have not engaged.
In a few days, we will know if these undecided voters play a significant role in close races. Or, if many of them don’t bother to even cast a ballot.