Puzzled and perplexed: “undecided” voters

Puzzled: adj. uncertain as to action or choice

Perplexed: adj. filled with uncertainty

I’ve been doorbelling and phone-calling local voters in an effort to determine who are “our people” – folks who will vote for Democrats and therefore need to gotten out to vote (or in my county which only votes by mail, to mail in their ballots).

While many folks simply may not want to disclose to a stranger which way they plan to vote, I’ve talked to a bunch of people who say they’re still undecided, and need to “study up a bit more…”

My question is this: have they been living under a rock for the past 18 months? We’ve been bombarded in every possible media format with candidate and economic news. Everyone is talking about the election, even my hairdresser and my mail man. How can anyone still be puzzled about who to vote for? Or do these folks just like all the attention they get from pollsters and GOTV activists like me?

The humorist David Sedaris has a fresh take on undecided voters:

I look at these people and can’t quite believe that they exist. Are they professional actors? I wonder. Or are they simply laymen who want a lot of attention?

To put them in perspective, I think of being on an airplane. The flight attendant comes down the aisle with her food cart and, eventually, parks it beside my seat. “Can I interest you in the chicken?” she asks. “Or would you prefer the platter of shit with bits of broken glass in it?”

To be undecided in this election is to pause for a moment and then ask how the chicken is cooked.