A tour of Michigan convinced a New York Times reporter that voters calling themselves "undecided" actually know exactly how they're going to vote — but are "reluctant to admit" it.
Megan K. Stack traveled through closely divided towns in the battleground state of Michigan, where polls suggest former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are neck and neck, and talked to many such voters.
"I met plenty of people who, in their first breath, told me they were undecided — only to admit or make plain, the longer we talked, that their presidential choice had already come together in their minds, even if they weren’t exactly saying it aloud," she wrote.
Generally, these were Trump voters who were just too embarrassed to admit they were backing him again — but on other occasions, she ran into longtime Republicans who just didn't want to admit they weren't voting for the party's nominee this time.
For example, she wrote, "A pleasant, middle-aged woman working the register of a small-town sandwich shop told me she had generally been a Republican voter. This election, though, she was balking. She talked loudly and freely about her indecision before finally whispering to me, so that her co-workers and customers couldn’t hear, that she was probably going to end up voting for Ms. Harris because she really, really couldn’t stand Mr. Trump.
"Then she grimaced, as if to say, What have we come to? Then she declined to tell me her name."
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In contrast, plenty of Republicans who appear ready to vote for Trump still present as undecided because they are disgusted at the choice in front of them, Stack continued. One such voter was Cindy Jager, a former garbage truck driver who lives in a small community in Kent County, an area that backed Trump in 2016 but President Joe Biden in 2020.
She called Trump's rants "embarrassing" — but also emphasized "I'm not Democrat!" and bemoaned, “Out of millions of people, why do we have these two?”
To some extent, this matches a recent Times investigation that found many Trump voters in Michigan freely admitted to not actually believing most of his wild rally claims.
So far, early voting data doesn't offer a clear picture of an advantage for either candidate in Michigan, although at least one data analyst thinks the data shows an unusually large turnout among Black women.
