The reluctant voters who could decide the election

Post Reports

The Washington Post

Daily News, Politics, News

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🗓️ 4 November 2024

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It’s the day before the presidential election, and a lot of people have already voted – or at least made up their minds.

But there are still undecided voters in key swing states who may or may not turn out. Last week, “Post Reports” producers interviewed some of these voters – whom we’re calling “The Deciders” – a key voting bloc that The Washington Post has been following all year. We’re bringing you their thoughts today.

Host Martine Powers also speaks with Scott Clement, polling director for The Post, about what these voters mean for former president Donald Trump’s or Vice President Kamala Harris’s path to victory.

Starting in the spring, The Post reached out to a contact list of voters who were not committed to either candidate, or who had a history of voting infrequently, and therefore might sit out the 2024 presidential election. All live in one of the seven battleground states largely expected to determine the election: Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan and Nevada. Clement describes how The Post has surveyed this group over time to gain insight into what motivates them and which way they are swinging this November.

Correction: a previous version of this podcast incorrectly said voter Richard Schall is from Michigan. The audio has been updated.

Today’s show was produced by Laura Benshoff with help from Peter Bresnan. It was edited by Maggie Penman and mixed by Sam Bair. Thanks also to Emily Guskin.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Are you planning to vote next week?
0:04.0	I am, indeed, yes.
0:05.8	And have you decided who you're going to vote for?
0:08.9	I am still currently undecided, as a matter of fact.
0:13.6	It's the day before the presidential election.
0:16.5	A lot of people have already voted.
0:18.8	And even if they haven't, it's safe to say that they have already made up their minds.
0:23.5	But not everyone.
0:25.4	Last week, one of our producers talked to Richard Schall in Michigan.
0:29.8	I think personally, I think I'm going to consider it the entire way all the way to the polling station because it's very important to me to keep an open mind.
0:39.1	I could have my mind made up today and I could hear something tomorrow that could change my mind.
0:43.9	Voters like Richard are important because people like him who are still making up their minds in key swing states,
0:50.9	they might actually decide the election.
0:53.4	So for months, we've been talking to these
0:55.9	people, who we call the deciders. They had to fit a few key characteristics. They needed to live
1:02.2	in an important state, and they needed to not be fully committed to a candidate. So we were really
1:06.6	interested in what made these voters tick, and we wanted to follow them throughout the election
1:10.4	campaign. Scott Clement is the polling director for the Washington Post. He says the goal of the
1:16.0	project was to understand the voters whose choices could actually swing the election. They're from
1:21.6	places like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Georgia. And there are more of these uncommitted voters than you might expect.
1:29.9	We've been surprised early in the project at how big this group is. There's a lot of people who don't
1:35.8	turn out in every election, and there are a lot of people who, early in the campaign, aren't fully
	...

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