U.S. parties focus on undecided voters

WASHINGTON, June 11 (UPI) -- With polls indicating a tight U.S. presidential race between George Bush and Sen. John Kerry, both parties are battling for the undecided voters.

Several recent polls have shown only about 5 percent of the voting public is undecided, about a third of what is typical at this point in the campaign, the New York Times said Friday. That figure increases to about 15 percent when pollsters include supporters of Democrat Kerry and Republican Bush who say they might change their minds.

Mary Beth Cahill, Kerry's campaign manager, said if the two parties succeeded at turning out their base vote, as both sides said now appears increasingly likely, "this election looks as though it's going to come down to these late deciders."

Undecided voters are likely to be younger, lower-income and less educated than the general electorate, said Ed Goeas, a Republican pollster.

These voters are more likely to put themselves at the center of the political scale, said Stanley Greenberg, a Democratic pollster. He said approximately 45 percent of undecided voters describe themselves as moderate, compared with 23 percent of the general electorate.