by Mary Rupert
Time is running out for the undecided to make up their minds in the presidential election on Tuesday, Nov. 8, and also for the other candidates and issues on the ballots.
Undecided voters are very important at this point in the election. While I personally am not undecided, the polls show there are still some voters who have not made up their minds.
One average of five respected national polls this week, from the Real Clear Politics website, showed a total of 94 percent of the voters would vote for one of the four leading presidential candidates. The remaining 6 percent may be committed to other candidates or may be undecided, and their decisions could make the difference in the election because polls show the top two candidates are close. Four out of five of these recent polls gave Clinton the lead at 3 to 4 points ahead this week, while the fifth poll cited gave Trump the lead with 2 points ahead.
I don’t blame the undecideds for not making up their minds yet. Maybe some think the candidates are too much alike, and maybe others really don’t like either one. Perhaps they are turned off by hateful remarks that were said this year. But there are real differences between the candidates this year on the issues, and voters will set the direction for future policies.
While flipping a coin in the voting booth is probably not against the law, there could be better ways of making up your mind.
If you are undecided, I recommend first doing some research on the candidates. Find the candidates’ positions on several issues you care about and see if it agrees with your position. The presidential candidates’ debates can be found on YouTube for review. Several stories about local candidates have appeared in the Wyandotte Daily during the campaign. A local candidate forum was on the KCKCC cable television channel.
There are several resources available online to compare the candidates’ stances on the issues. One of them is Project Vote Smart, http://votesmart.org/.
If you still can’t decide after the research, there are plenty of people who will tell you how to vote. But to make your own decision, you might try one of the processes that have been developed to guide people through tough dilemmas.
Ben Franklin was famous for making a list of pros and cons for important decisions. After you write the reasons for voting one way on one side of the paper and the reasons for a different way on the other side of the paper, give each item a number from 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest, for its importance. Then you can give weight to the pros and cons based on factors such as how likely will they occur. In this campaign, you might even want to award negative points on your list. Ask yourself some questions about your results, emphasizing what really matters to you.
Another way to make decisions, often used when there is a dilemma, is called the Potter box, named after an ethicist. In that process, a person draws a box on a paper, divided into four parts by a horizontal and vertical line. The top left box describes the facts of the situation. The next box uses the values that are part of the decision. The third box cites ethical principles being used (such as the golden mean or the greatest good for the greatest number), and in the fourth box you state your loyalties, in connection with this decision. The process might help undecided people reach a decision.
There is one sure thing for undecideds to remember this year: If you don’t vote, you are essentially letting everyone else decide for you. I would encourage undecided voters to try to come to some sort of decision and then vote this year.
To reach Mary Rupert, editor, email [email protected].