‘Picking lesser of two evils’ hard for undecided voters

Like a lot of college students in 2008, Daniel Davis found himself captivated by then-presidential candidate Barack Obama’s message of hope and change.

Four years later, Davis is unemployed and frustrated with the job market, putting him in that small pool of critical, yet hard-to-read undecided voters who will determine this year’s presidential race in all-important battleground states.

“I feel not necessarily lied to in the current presidential climate, but … the unemployment situation is very frustrating,” said Davis, 25, of Rittenhouse Square.

He said he is leaning towards Obama because “Mitt Romney scares the crap out of me,” but noted that his feelings this election are much more muted.

“I have faith, but not nearly as much as I did the first time,” he said.

Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion at Marist College, said the narrow margin of undecided voters nationwide is testament to the vast differences between the candidates in this election.

“Usually there are more earlier, now is the time it starts to boil down,” Miringoff told Metro. “This election is very polarized. There isn’t a lot of switching back and forth.”

While undecided voters are typically characterized as uninformed, particularly at this stage of the campaigns, some said they are just trying to get through the rhetoric.