|
|
 |
|
 |
 |
| ON THE FENCE | |
 October 23, 2000  |
|
|
Betty Ann Bowser explores the psyche of undecided voters in the bellwether state of Ohio.
|
|
|
BETTY ANN BOWSER: It was the night of the third and final
presidential debate, but thousands of Cleveland Ohio voters weren't
paying attention to political fireworks. They'd paid up to $100 to see
the |
|||||||||||||||||||
| "Still undecided" | ||||||||||||||||||||
|
BETTY ANN BOWSER: So you really are undecided?
BETTY ANN BOWSER: A lot of voters say that, but we think they're already leaning one way or another. CASSANDRA MAPES: I'm truly undecided. I probably won't know until I go in there and I pick my spot. SPOKESMAN: From Miami Florida, weighing in at.... BETTY ANN BOWSER: Mapes would rather see wrestling star "The Rock" than either Vice President Gore or Governor Bush -- but when pressed says she likes the policies of both candidates. CASSANDRA MAPES: I'm a Democrat, and I like Gore, like I like he's pro-choice. I like how he's - you know -- for the family and stuff. But I am really... I like Bush because he's like wanting to get like students out of like the inner cities and get them like vouchers to go to public schools. I like that he seems to have his information, like, more gathered, and it's not so spacey like Gores. BETTY ANN BOWSER: Other wrestling fanatics we talked to haven't focused on the presidential campaign and said they won't do so until the last minute.
ANNOUNCER: It is now my great honor and pleasure to introduce to you the next President of the United States, George W. Bush. BETTY ANN BOWSER: In most presidential elections, the number of uncommitted or undecided voters shrinks dramatically after Labor Day as people begin to focus on the race. ANNOUNCER: Al Gore and Senator Joe Lieberman. BETTY ANN BOWSER: That's exactly what happened again this election year. But this time around, because the election is so close, the small number of undecideds has taken on new importance. GEORGE W. BUSH: Thank you for listening. |
 |
|||||||||||||||||||
| Courting the buckeye voter | ||||||||||||||||||||
|
BETTY ANN BOWSER: The experts say right now in Ohio only 3 percent of the state's 7.2 million voters haven't made up their minds. With Bush ahead in the polls by just a small margin, the swing voter this year carries a lot of weight. So from the beginning of the campaign, Gore and Bush have made it a priority to be seen frequently in the buckeye state. AD SPOKESPERSON: Al Gore's prescription plan forces seniors into a government-run HMO. Governor Bush gives seniors a choice. BETTY ANN BOWSER: And the two campaigns have blanketed the media with millions of dollars in political ads. AD SPOKESMAN: Bush even opposed providing health care for 220,000 more Texas children. On November 7, is that the change we really want for Ohio? VICE PRESIDENT AL GORE: I'll work hard to learn the subject of nuclear arms control. BETTY ANN BOWSER: David McDowell and his family have followed all of this with great interest. He watched all three debates. He's read extensively on both men, followed their positions on the issues. But just weeks away from the election, he's still uncommitted.
BETTY ANN BOWSER: McDowell is a Cleveland contractor. He considers himself an independent Republican and a swing voter. In the past, he's voted for both Republican and Democratic presidential candidates. He supports Vice President Gore's environmental policies, and he's for abortion rights. DAVID McDOWELL: I don't want the Supreme Court to get too conservative.
I'm worried that we're going to get a court that will end up, you know,
affecting decades of Americans and really reverse a lot of social issues
that I feel are important. I think if Roe vs. Wade got reversed, I think
that would be a real problem. DAVID McDOWELL: I think that he'll be effective at crossing those party lines, you know, looking for consensus. I think it's something that he's done in Texas. I look at Gore, and I don't know who I am looking at. And that scares me. I want somebody that I can get a sense of their heart, I guess. And I don't get a sense of that with Gore. My biggest problem with Gore is I don't know who I'm looking at. BETTY ANN BOWSER: University of Cincinnati pollster Eric Rademaker says McDowell is a typical Ohio undecided, independent swing voter.
BETTY ANN BOWSER: 22-year-old Allison Weingart is also uncommitted, even though she grew up in a staunchly Republican household and four years ago voted for Bob Dole. For the past six months, she's been supporting herself for the first time, working as a marketing specialist for the Cleveland Children's Museum. And she says she's uncommitted because the candidates aren't talking about issues she thinks affect young people. ALLISON WEINGART: I feel a lot of the issues are not going the affect me now. I know Social Security is eventually going to affect me. It doesn't now. Improving the public school system is not affecting me. I don't have kids. I'm not having kids anytime soon, so it doesn't affect me now. BETTY ANN BOWSER: Weingart does find some common ground with the Vice President on abortion rights, and she also thinks Governor Bush's proposed tax cut has appeal.
BETTY ANN BOWSER: What do you like about Gore? ALLISON WINGART: I like his pro-choice policy better than Bush's. I see Bush's view in the issue, but I'm pro-choice, being a woman and stuff like that. So that leans me more towards Gore. But the taxes lean me more towards Bush. |
 |
|||||||||||||||||||
| The too-busy American voter | ||||||||||||||||||||
|
BETTY ANN BOWSER: But several of the patrons we met at Weingart's museum aren't focused on the election, the candidates, or the issues. Jennifer Clark, a mother with two kids and a third on the way, said she's just too busy with her family. BETTY ANN BOWSER: So, do you think that you are going to concentrate on this at all between now and the election, or are you just too busy?
BETTY ANN BOWSER: Do you think you may not vote at all? JENNIFER CLARK: Well, I'm registered, so I - I really don't know at this point. BETTY ANN BOWSER: Laura Mellon Dykes is also too busy to focus on the election. Like many undecideds, she is starting to lean towards one candidate, but not yet ready to fully commit. She works full-time as the assistant to a prominent Cleveland portrait photographer. And by the time she gets home at night, this single mother's evenings are consumed with dinner, chores, and homework with 14-year-old Megan and ten- year-old Ryan. But now that the election is just weeks away, Dykes is paying attention. Her top issue is moral leadership, and right now, she is leaning toward Governor Bush. LAURA MELLON DYKES: I feel like we need to be BETTY ANN BOWSER: But Dykes' support for Bush is what pollster Rademaker calls soft. His research shows a sizeable number of the Ohio electorate is like Dykes -- people who could have a change of heart before November 7. ERIC RADEMACHER: When we look at the numbers a little deeper, though, we do see that somewhere in the neighborhood of about a third of Ohio voters are still at least considering the two candidates, in the sense that they have decided who they'll vote for, but they might change their mind between now and election day. Somewhere in the neighborhood of about seven out of ten of those folks will stay with their current preference. But there is a possibility that about three out of ten of those folks may indeed change their mind. SPOKESPERSON: Basically this highlights a lot of what they're going to do, what Gore's going to do to help you out in terms of education. |
||||||||||||||||||||
| Democrats and Republicans put on the pressure | ||||||||||||||||||||
|
BETTY ANN BOWSER: That kind of volatility has motivated both political parties to spend more money to get out the vote than ever before. The Democrats are conducting what they call a GOTV, a "Get Out the Vote" Campaign, on college campuses, with phone banks and with mailings all aimed at those undecided voters. DAVID LELAND: Are you getting any responses? SPOKESMAN: Good responses. BETTY ANN BOWSER: David Leland is state chairman. DAVID LELAND: What we're planning to do up until election day is to make sure that we have over 10,000 people knocking on doors and bringing voters to the polls. We're going to have, probably have a million phone calls to various people in the state of Ohio encouraging them to participate in this election. We've already mailed out 750,000 absentee ballot applications to people to make sure they vote for Democrats in this particular election. When people turn out in the state of Ohio, Democrats win. And so that's what we need to do up until now and on Election Day.
ROBERT BENNETT: You can't get complacent. As soon as you get complacent, you're going to find yourself in a two-point race again, and if that momentum shifts against you, it's very hard to shift it back at this point. So I think you have to pour it on in the last two weeks. BETTY ANN BOWSER: In the final weeks of the campaign, Governor Bush may be pulling more voters into the ring than Vice President Gore, even though polls show statistically it continues to be a dead heat. So both parties say they'll continue to pour it on, hoping to pin down more of those undecided voters. |
 |
|||||||||||||||||||
 |
        |
|
| Support the kind of journalism done by the NewsHour...Become a member of your local PBS station. | ||
| ||
| PBS Online Privacy Policy Copyright ©1996- MacNeil/Lehrer Productions. All Rights Reserved. | ||
| ||
pyrotechnics generated by the World Wrestling Federation. While the
muscle men tag teams struggled to toss each other off the mat, in another
city hundreds of miles away, the two presidential candidates were trying
to draw voters into their ring. In the 20,000-plus capacity crowd there
were many people who had already decided who they were going to vote
for. But a small number were still on the fence -- voters like 26-year-old
nurses aide Cassandra Mapes. 
CASSANDRA
MAPES: Really I am. 
AUNDRE
LINDSAY: I'm still flipping a coin. It's still up in the air. You know,
I still got to do some more research. I mean, I like Bush. You know
what I'm saying. He's saying a lot of positive things. Gore's saying
a lot of positive things. I just want, you know what I'm saying, you
know, the best man that's going to do the job. 
DAVID
McDOWELL: Well, I would describe myself as a fiscal Republican and a
social Democrat, and it really puts me in a place where I don't know
who I'm going to vote for because of the issues, which I don't think
are so well-defined. You're choosing the guy who didn't make a mistake
as opposed to choosing the person that you can say, "wow, I want
this person to lead the country." And that's who I am looking for.
And I don't see it right now. 
ERIC
RADEMACHER: Independents tend to be very well informed on the issues,
and the fact that they sway back and forth is also an indicator of why
many people come to Ohio to talk about presidential elections. Ohio
is a state that in a given election has anywhere from about 6 percent
or 7 percent to 15 percent or 20 percent of actual independents showing
up and voting, and we know that those independents often cast the presidential
election one way or the other.
ALLISON
WINGART: I like his tax plan more. It concerns me more now because of
my age and stuff, and now that I'm working and making money, I'm looking
more towards having more in my paycheck instead of having it taken out.
And I feel like Gore is going to raise the taxes and stuff, and that
concerns me. 
JENNIFER
CLARK: I do not know if I am going to really have time. You know, I
am getting ready for a new baby, and I'm trying to take care of two
others.
rid
of anything that reminds us of the fiascos that were in the White House
the last few years. It's known all over, and it's like we're the laughing
stock. I don't, I don't like that. We need leadership that we feel that
we can trust and that is honest to us, and not just the personal stuff,
but, you know, that are a lot of other things, too. And I think he hasn't
been honest. 
BETTY
ANN BOWSER: The Republicans are spending millions of dollars doing specific
targeting of undecided voters in various interest groups: Veterans,
hunters, seniors. Robert Bennett, state party chairman, likes to remind
people that no Republican has ever been elected president without winning
Ohio.