{"id":16302,"date":"2012-09-21T00:00:01","date_gmt":"2012-09-21T05:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/swing-vote-smaller-than-usual-but-one-in-five-still-not-certain\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T03:42:17","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T08:42:17","slug":"swing-vote-smaller-than-usual-but-one-in-five-still-not-certain","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2012\/09\/21\/swing-vote-smaller-than-usual-but-one-in-five-still-not-certain\/","title":{"rendered":"Swing Vote Smaller Than Usual, But One-in-Five Still Not Certain"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Compared with many previous elections at this point in the campaign, more voters this year say they are absolutely certain to vote for their chosen candidate. Only 22% of registered voters (and 18% of likely voters) can be classified as swing voters (undecided, only leaning toward a candidate, or say there is a chance they might change their mind).<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Four years ago, 27% of voters were still open to persuasion at this point in the campaign. Between 1992 and 2000, about three-in-ten voters in September were not yet certain about their choice.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a survey conducted Sept. 12-16, 43% of all registered voters say they are certain to vote for Barack Obama, while 35% say they are certain to vote for Mitt Romney. Among less certain Obama voters, 3% only lean to him and 5% say they might change their mind. Among less certain Romney voters, 3% only lean to the Republican, while 3% say there is a chance they might vote for Obama. Just 7% of voters decline to indicate any preference between the candidates. <a href=\"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/politics\/2012\/09\/19\/section-1-the-obama-romney-matchup\/\">Read More<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Only 22% of registered voters could be classified as true swing voters as of mid-September, less than in previous presidential years<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"sub_headline":"","sub_title":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"relatedPosts":[],"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0},"categories":[],"bylines":[791],"collection":[],"datasets":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[467],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[515],"research-teams":[],"workflow-status":[],"class_list":["post-16302","short-read","type-short-read","status-publish","hentry","bylines-pew-research-center-staff","formats-short-read","regions-countries-united-states"],"label":"Short 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