With the presidential election only three months away, there are voters who are undecided about whom to vote for, while others are not voting at all.
In a recent poll conducted by Reuters, 11.1 percent of 1,940 respondents said they were not going to vote at all. Kenneth Gomez, a NMSU graduate, will not be voting this year because he has not been keeping up with the election like he would like to.
“I have not been able to follow the election as good as I wanted to, to make a decision,” Gomez said.
Past elections have also gone down the same road with voters not voting or remaining undecided as the election comes up.
According to a Marist Poll, 10 to 15 percent of voters were undecided leading up to the 2012 election. The poll also stated that voters who were unsure were likely not committed to a party.
That is the case with Ashley Zubia, a UTEP junior majoring in exercise science. She is unsure if she will be voting because of the way the candidates have represented themselves.
“I have been following the election very little due to the fact that I do not like any of the candidates running,” Zubia said.
Many undecided voters do not like the candidates running because of what the media say about them.
However, Hilary Clinton has built a strong lead following the national party conventions according to Steven Shepard, a Campaign Editor for Politico.
A FOX News Poll states voters under the age of 35 would not vote for either of the two candidates.
In a poll conducted by a CBS News polling unit, 54 percent viewed Clinton unfavorably while 54 percent had an unfavorable opinion about Donald Trump.
Frank Luntz, a news analyst for CBS News and Fox News Channel, believes undecided voters’ main concern is that they want a unifier not a divider.
“Undecided are waiting impatiently to see, hear and feel the one candidate who can demonstrate the capacity to deftly work across the vast chasms that divide us,” Luntz said. He also said undecided voters complain about not having more choices to vote from.
Brandee Walton, an NMSU journalism senior who will be voting this election, has lost faith in the main party candidates because she feels they are speaking just to speak.
“I don’t feel like they are really running for the correct purpose or intentions, more to say that they ran and won not actually making a change in America,” Walton said. She has been keeping up with the election because every day there is a new story about either candidate in the media. Zubia, believes the undecided voters will have an impact in this election because there are many voters who are unsure who to vote for just like herself.
When election day comes, voters will choose the best candidate in their eyes, but for Gomez that is something he isn’t up to doing.
“It’s like pick your poison and I don’t want to take part in that,” Gomez said.
