Gary Jones’ status as that most coveted of voter in this election season ended late last week, when he marked his ballot for John McCain and handed it in.
For the first time in this interminably long presidential race, he was no longer an undecided voter. But that doesn’t mean he was finally a satisfied one.
“It was kind of one of those deals where I didn’t vote for anybody,” Jones, a 56-year-old human-resources consultant from Littleton said. “I voted for the lesser of the evils.”
“I’m so disappointed this year,” he added later. “I had high hopes that we were going to get someone who is a great leader.”
With the arrival of Election Day, undecided voters — including those whom The Denver Post has been following over the last several weeks — were forced to decide, whether they were ready to or not. For some, like Nancy Harrison, a small business owner in Wellington, that decision brought about relief, even excitement and a sense that the long process to choose a candidate has led to a more informed decision.
“It felt really good,” said Harrison, who cast her ballot for Barack Obama. “In fact, I went over to the Democratic Party office in Fort Collins and got an Obama sign and put it in my front yard.”
But for others, the decision brought a touch of sadness, that all the weeks and months of consideration couldn’t make either major party candidate into the choice they had hoped for.
“I wish there was a better choice out there,” said Eric Bracke, a 53-year-old engineer in Fort Collins. “But this is what we’ve got.”
In the end, it wasn’t one speech or one ad that made up the undecided voters’ minds.
Many considered the candidates through the lenses of their own lives. Harrison, for instance, is a cancer survivor who said she now finds it impossible to get affordable health insurance.
“Mine costs $7,200,” she said, “and literally covers nothing.”
So when Obama spoke about making insurance companies put patients before profits, that resonated with her.
“I felt better after I looked at what Obama was proposing,” she said. “And McCain, in my view, he hurt himself with all the negative attacks and the negative ads.”
Indeed, with The Post’s undecided voters, attacks seemed to backfire more than they helped. Bracke said he decided upon McCain in part because of a criticism the Obama campaign made of the guy who has become a fixture at McCain events.
“It really came down to character,” Bracke said. “I think Obama — what they did to that Joe the Plumber guy, running him through the ringer — really ticked me off.”
To the extent an attack or a criticism did play a role with the undecided voters, it was more to crystallize an impression that was already forming of one candidate or another.
Jones said throughout the campaign, Obama’s operation struck him as being just a little too slick. When the McCain campaign began launching criticisms that Obama would seek to redistribute wealth, that stuck with Jones.
“Even though I don’t agree with a lot of McCain’s policies,” Jones said.
JOne thing is for sure, though, as this election season draws to a close. None of the undecided voters will miss being the prized prey of the presidential campaigns.
“It got to the point with the phone calls where it was kind of a game,” Jones said. “You could tell which party was calling you by how they framed their questions. I’d tell the Democrats I was voting Republican and the Republicans I was voting Democrat.”
Ever the elusive target.
John Ingold: 303-954-1068 or jingold@denverpost.com.
