US Presidential Debate To Influence Crucial 5% Undecided Voters In Close Race: Expert

US Presidential debate to influence crucial 5% undecided voters in close race: Expert

ABU DHABI, (Pakistan Point News - 29th Sep, 2020) As the first US Presidential election debate occurs on Tuesday (UAE time 5 am Wednesday), it is likely to influence a small number of undecided voters only, but they will make a decisive impact on the close race this time, according to an expert academic.

"As high as 90-95% of debate viewers record no change in candidate choice after debate viewing. But of the approximately 5% who come to the debate undecided, more than half (3-4%) of these individuals will report a candidate preference following debate viewing," said Dr. Mitchell S. McKinney, Professor at Department of Communications in the University of Missouri in the US.

The debate viewers are more likely to vote, he added at a virtual briefing from Washington Foreign Press Centre, for journalists participating in a virtual reporting tour of the election process, organised by the U.S. Department of State.

More than 200 journalists have been selected for the eight-week long virtual tour, from media outlets across the globe, including Emirates news Agency, WAM.

Dr. Mckinney, who is a national and international expert on Presidential debates and has been studying debates since the late 1980s, said the debates have not made major impacts on every Presidential election in the past.

"These debates mostly reinforce the choice of candidates individuals are already supporting. Most debate viewers tune in to cheer on their candidate -- much like viewers of a football game tune in to cheer on their team," he observed.

"Still, these debates have a wide reach, and a small number of ‘undecided’ viewers do use the debate to make their candidate choice. In a race that is close [between Donald Trump and Joe Biden], this small number can be consequential in the outcome of the election," said Professor Mckinney.

About the Presidential debates that influenced the election results in the past, he mentioned those in 1960, 1976, 1980, 1992, 2000.

Many historians and others argue that John Kennedy's superior debate performance (over Richard Nixon) in 1960 contributed to his election (and the Kennedy-Nixon was a very close election decided by a small margin), the professor pointed out.

Ronald Reagan's debate performance in 1980 was seen as very strong and allowed him to pull ahead of the incumbent President Jimmy Carter and go on to win by a rather wide margin, said Dr. Mckinney who has advised the US Commission on Presidential Debates where his work was instrumental in developing the presidential "town hall" debate format.

The first debate between Trump and Biden will take place at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.