Jones: Polling changing early picture of big primaries | Online Athens

The large number of undecided voters in a recent poll suggests that the primary isn’t living up to early predictions.

Morris News and Fox5 of Atlanta released a poll Thursday conducted by InsiderAdvantage on April 13-15. The headline was that the top names had not changed since previous polls: Nathan Deal leads in the governor’s race while David Perdue and Jack Kingston remain in first and second place, respectively, in the Senate contest.

The poll’s relatively high number of undecided voters 10 days before the start of early voting — 33 percent — reflects low voter intensity. If there were a populist revolt brewing, people would have already fallen in line behind the candidate leading it.

The high undecided figure in the governor’s race, 28 percent, also shows little interest in overthrowing the establishment incumbent Deal, who commands 61 percent in the survey.
The undecided numbers from the two races combine to burst another early prediction about turnout. When a federal judge ordered the primary moved earlier in the year to allow time for overseas military ballots to be counted in runoffs, most political operatives expected a May election date would result in greater turnout than the traditional July date when school holidays left many voters on vacation.

via Jones: Polling changing early picture of big primaries | Online Athens.