Poll: 1 in 3 US voters still undecided

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
More than one-third of voters have not made up their mind about who they will vote for in their congressional races Tuesday, according to an Associated Press-AOL News poll conducted Oct. 20-25. Among findings about the 38 percent who say they are still persuadable: DEMOCRATS have the edge, with 51 percent of the persuadable voters favoring Democrats and 35 percent favoring Republicans. The remaining 14 percent said they were undecided or refused to say. REPUBLICANS have a slight advantage among persuadable voters when dealing with terrorism, national security and tax policy. FEMALES make up a disproportionate share of the persuadable voters, or 58 percent. Females also tend to call themselves moderates, with 46 percent adopting that label. SUBURBAN AND RURAL voters are more persuadable than others. Almost half of rural voters - 47 percent - said they were persuadable, followed by 40 percent of suburbanites who said they were persuadable. ECONOMIC concerns trump other issues among persuadable voters, with 91 percent saying it is extremely or very important. The war in Iraq is the No. 2 issue, with 88 percent of voters saying it is extremely or very important. IRAQ is viewed as a mistake among persuadable voters, with 62 percent saying going to war was an error and 35 percent saying it was the right thing to do. These numbers are on par with decided voters. However, persuadable Republicans tend to view it as a greater mistake, with 31 percent saying it was a mistake compared to 18 percent of decided voters who plan to vote for Republicans. ANGER is less pronounced among persuadable voters than among all likely voters; 33 percent of persuadable voters are angry with the Bush administration compared with 40 percent of all likely voters. NEITHER PARTY has an advantage on the issue of corruption. Among persuadable voters, 37 percent said there is no difference between parties on the issue, 36 percent favored Democrats and 21 percent favored Republicans. PARTICIPATION is uncertain; some persuadable voters might stay home on Tuesday.