General
These Uncommitted Voters Finally Made Their Choice for President
Over the last four months, these voters have struggled with their decision. Now, with time short, they explain who’s getting, or not getting, their vote.
Over the last four months, The New York Times has been speaking with undecided voters after some of the most dramatic moments of the presidential campaign, to learn how those events were shaping their choice.
The people we talked with live in states where the polling is tight, and voters like them will play an outsize role in determining the outcome. They are concerned about the cost of living, former President Donald J. Trump’s volatility and Vice President Kamala Harris’s vision for the country.
They are sporadic voters, disaffected former partisans, Republicans and Democrats. Some of them shifted their decisions over the course of the campaign. Others will decide when they step into the booth.
While a lot has happened over the last few months, poll numbers have remained largely stable. The vast majority of American voters have made up their minds, adding even more weight to what persuadable voters ultimately decide.
Kristen Morris voted for Ms. Harris.
transcript
I voted for Kamala Harris because I feel like she is predictable and is somebody that I think we really need right now, considering all the issues that are going to be facing us in the next few years. I was looking for Trump to demonstrate how he had evolved after Jan. 6. That really, really disturbed me, and I was looking to him to be hopefully a different type of leader, somebody who had moderated and become more grounded. And as he campaigned and as we got to know him more over the last year, he actually became seemingly more extreme to me. I’m a classic hardcore moderate. I’ve always voted Republican. I needed to try to keep my mind as open as I possibly could throughout the process to come to what would normally not be my normal decision and vote for a Democrat.
In the spring, Kristen Morris, 60, a former Republican, was feeling deeply pessimistic about her two choices for president. She felt troubled by Mr. Biden, whom she had voted for in 2020: She worried about his cognitive abilities and was unhappy with his handling of the country’s withdrawal from Afghanistan. And she was stunned that Mr. Trump continued to express no remorse over the Jan. 6 riot.
