CHARLESTON, S.C. _ Dawn Vollink says she's finally ready to settle on Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
Well, maybe.
The 70-year-old Democrat who once contemplated voting for former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg (before he showed "attitude" in recent debates) and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (before she slumped in Nevada) in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary says she is re-considering supporting Warren after the Massachusetts senator's vigorous takedown of Mike Bloomberg.
But even now, she's not 100% sold _ on Warren or anyone else in the field.
"None of them totally knocks me off my feet," said Vollink, who attended a Warren rally here Monday as she tried to gather more information about the candidates. "None of them really stands out. I mean, I'd vote for a gerbil before I'd vote for Trump, so it's been sort of a process of elimination."
Voters like Vollnik _ many of them white, well-educated, and suburban _ have played an influential and often confounding role during the first month of the Democratic race. After a year of campaigning and three nominating contests, they are still deeply unsure of which candidate to support, even often watching their top preference shift from week to week.
It's a dynamic once again set to shape results in Saturday's primary in South Carolina.
"A lot of undecided voters have flown all over the place the last year," said Ian Sams, a former aide to Sen. Kamala Harris's presidential campaign. "They tend to be college-educated, highly informed people, and they're looking for signals for who can beat Trump and who's the strongest general election nominee more than they are going with their gut or falling in love with a candidate."
The indecision of these voters is a continuation of a trend that started in 2019 and, if anything, has intensified as primary voting has begun. Hesitant voters were prevalent at the candidates' rallies in South Carolina this week, as many hoping to gather last-minute information to help inform their final decision.
In interviews, most also openly acknowledged how their perception of electability was complicating their choice.
Fifty-two-year-old Darshan Sarmento, for example, attended a small rally Thursday night for billionaire Tom Steyer but admitted that she really liked Warren.
She was just worried Warren's gender would prevent her from defeating Trump.
"I really like Warren, and her ideas, and her plans," Sarmento said. "But then there's this little voice inside my head that says, 'Are we really ready for a woman?'"
Sarmento attended Steyer's rally with her wife, Rachel Dunai. Both women said they had a similar electability concern with another candidate they liked: Buttigieg.
"We've barely gotten the right to get married," said Dunai, who lives in Summerville, S.C. "I don't think they're going to put a gay man in charge."
Those dual fears pushed them to at least consider Steyer, a longshot candidate who's polling better in South Carolina thanks mostly to the millions of dollars spent on advertising in the state. Both women emphasized that in the end, they just wanted to pick a candidate who could defeat Trump.
"We've got 36 hours left, right?" Dunai said. "Then we'll decide."
Late deciding voters like Sarmento and Dunai have been the norm so far in the Democratic primary. More than a third of caucus-goers in Iowa made up their mind in the days before that state's contest, according to entrance polls, while roughly half of Democrats in New Hampshire did so before that state's primary, exit polls showed.
The late-breaking voter bloc helped Klobuchar vault to a surprise third-place finish in the Granite State, after a well-reviewed debate performance days before the primary. But just as soon as voters are ready to give momentum in this primary, they seem equally as ready to take it away.
"As much as I like Amy Klobuchar, I'm not sure she's a sustainable long-term candidate based on Nevada," said Kim Alexander, a 42-year-old Charleston resident. Alexander attended a Warren rally in town Monday and said she was considering supporting the Massachusetts senator but still hadn't quite made up her mind.
Klobuchar finished sixth in Nevada, and polls in South Carolina indicate she's on track for a similar finish here Saturday.
Some Democratic leaders say the reasons for the indecision is rooted in the sheer size of a field that once totaled 25 candidates, and even now includes more than a half-dozen serious contenders.
"I do think when you have the largest field of candidates that we have ever had in the history of a nominating process, that will you actually will have people who have not made up their minds," Trav Robertson, chairman of the South Carolina Democratic Party, said on McClatchy's Beyond the Bubble podcast. "It's not a sin. It's OK to flip to from one candidate. It means they're looking at them."
Robertson joked that as of Monday, even he hadn't cast his vote.
The shifting allegiances among suburban white voters has been a boon to a candidates like Bernie Sanders, whose loyal base of progressive die-hards is unwavering, and Joe Biden, who is favored to win in South Carolina thanks mostly to his deep appeal to the state's many black voters.
Consolidating those voters would be a boon to Warren, Buttigieg, or Klobuchar. But among Democratic operatives, there's skepticism that will happen before candidates start dropping out of the race.
"I don't think we're ever going to be in a situation where suddenly the skies part and everyone sees the light and it all consolidates around one candidate," Sams said. "I think it's going to depend on where you are and which candidates are left in the field."
Vollink said that even before the Warren rally started Monday, she was "75%" sure she'd vote for her. But Vollink held open the possibility that she might cast her ballot for someone else.
Vollink, who was vacationing in South Carolina but lives in Kalamazoo, Mich., has until March 10 to make a final decision.
"Am I being fickle?" she said. "I don't know."
