One of Ours

4%....This year, about 50% of the voting age population will vote in the presidential election.

However, only 30% of the population lives in contested states [that's 15%].

And according to the latest New York Times poll, only 25% of the people they surveyed are still undecided about who they're going to vote for [that's 3.75%].

Do the arithmetic and that adds up to 4% of the electorate. Everything you see for the next six months from George Bush and John Kerry — every ad, every dollar, every speech, every prerecorded telephone call — is aimed at trying to convert about 4% of the total voting age population. The other 96% of us are basically spectators — either we're not going to vote, we live in states that are foregone conclusions, or we've already made up our minds.

Do you know anyone who's part of the 4%? If you do, get to work on them.