Announcing The Atlantic Panel Survey

MANCHESTER -- Here in New Hampshire, nearly a third of voters are undecided, truly undecided, and not even leaning in a particular direction. There’s plenty of debate within the political science community about how large the pool of absolute undecideds are; clearly, the number decreases as the election approaches.

I’d like to ask my independent-minded readers to help with an easy experiment. Since I don’t have the tools to do fancy-schmancy graphs or flash-video animations, just plain text – words and ideas – will do.

I want to create an intelligence panel from those readers of my blog who haven’t made up their minds. I’ll focus group the panel at least twice a month, and I’ll summarize their answers on the blog.

The criteria is simple: I’m looking for anyone eligible to vote who hasn’t yet made up their mind and who wouldn’t mind answering questions every so often.

Please send me as much information about yourself as you’re comfortable with, but at a
minimum: your gender, age, location, occupation, party affiliation (if you have one) and your religion (if you have one.)

I won’t reveal your name – I promise. As in Judy Miller promise.

As members of the panel make up their minds, I’ll print their mini-essays on the subject.
The purpose, of course, is to give you and me a window into the minds of those politically engaged Americans who will decide the presidential race. It’s not scientific but it is valuable. If this gets off the ground, I guarantee that the McCain and Obama campaigns will follow its progress.

If you’d like to apply, please e-mail me at [e-mail]. My initial question: will Iraq matter to your vote, and why?