# Undecided voters: What will make you decide?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/undecided-voters-what-will-make-you-decide/259331>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [August 11, 2004, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/undecided-voters-what-will-make-you-decide/259331 "2004-08-11T07:24:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\
**Post date:** [August 22, 2004, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/undecided-voters-what-will-make-you-decide/259331/21 "2004-08-22T07:31:11Z")

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> [@alanak](#):
>
> Well, I’m undecided betwen Kerry and Nader.  
> A lot of who I vote for depends on whether or not Nader makes the ballot in my state, which I won’t know for a few weeks. As it is, I’m leaning towards Kerry, but if Nader doesn’t make the ballot, then it’s pretty much a shoe-in for Kerry.
> 
> But if Nader does make the ballot, I’ll really have to do some deep thinking.

If you vote for Nader, and Bush wins by less than Nader’s margin, where will you go? what will you do? who will take you in?

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**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\
**Post date:** [August 22, 2004, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/undecided-voters-what-will-make-you-decide/259331/22 "2004-08-22T08:21:51Z")

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> [@alanak](#):
>
> Well, I’m undecided betwen Kerry and Nader.  
> A lot of who I vote for depends on whether or not Nader makes the ballot in my state, which I won’t know for a few weeks. As it is, I’m leaning towards Kerry, but if Nader doesn’t make the ballot, then it’s pretty much a shoe-in for Kerry.
> 
> But if Nader does make the ballot, I’ll really have to do some deep thinking.

Let me begin by saying that I truly like Ralph Nader…I am old enough to remember when he came out as a consumer advocate and people at my university were signing petitions to get some of his ideas enacted as law.

That said, I think this election is too important to “waste” a vote. Bear with me a minute. Ralph is not going to win. You know that, everybody knows that. Every single poll in the US has shown that to be true. If the man seriously had a chance in hell, even I would give him a second glance.

So, knowing full well he is not going to win, and your vote will be nothing more than a tiny footnote in American politics…it seems to me that a vote for Nader is simply a non-vote. There is nothing inherently wrong with that. However, voting for, or against Bush, is something that will matter - especially in some swing states. Especially considering in the last Presidential election, it was only a matter of a few hundred votes that changed the results of the election.

So - although I understand Nader may be your candidate of choice, you really have to think it over. Is voting your heart more important than being perhaps the deciding factor in who really is elected this time out?

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