ASHINGTON - Many Americans are moving away from deciding on a presidential candidate, a new poll has suggested, as the first contest draws near in Iowa.
Almost three-fourths of respondents said they had not yet picked a candidate, according to a poll on voter interest taken by the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University. That compared with about two-thirds in November.
''It is a depressing fact that the American people seem to be less interested in the campaign, less impressed by the candidates, than they have been in a long time,'' said Marvin Kalb, executive director of the center's Washington office.
The Vanishing Voter Project plans to interview at least 1,000 Americans each week through the November election, more than 50,000 voters in all.
The researchers voiced surprise at the number of undecided potential voters less than three weeks before the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 24.
''We had expected the opposite finding,'' said professor Thomas Patterson, a Harvard researcher and a codirector of the project. ''Apparently, the upswing in the Bradley and McCain campaigns has served mainly to raise doubts about all the candidates.''
When people were asked which candidate they supported, but were given the option of saying they had not picked one yet, 74 percent said they did not support anyone. In November, 64 percent said they had not made a choice.
Governor George W. Bush of Texas was the choice of 13 percent, Vice President Al Gore of 6 percent, Arizona Senator John McCain of 3 percent and former Senator Bill Bradley of 2 percent. Other candidates were at 1 percent or less.
''I think that it's something inherent in the political system,'' Kalb said. ''Part of the explanation may be the rise of Bradley and McCain - but the larger explanation is that there is an unusually large disconnect between the potential voter and the campaign - deep down, we don't know.''
When people were asked whether they had talked or thought about the campaign in the prior 24 hours, 9 of 10 said no.
The poll of 1,012 people was taken from Dec. 28 through Jan. 2. Its margin was 3 percentage points.
The poll is part of a broader project that looks at the campaigns, media coverage and interest in the process.
