What Nevada's undecided voters are thinking
(CBS News) LAS VEGAS - One of the most hotly contested states in the 2012 presidential election is Nevada, where unemployment is at 12.5 percent -- the highest in the nation.
Polls show the presidential race is dead even there. The fight is for those 3 percent of voters who remain undecided.
Single mom and Nevada native, Erica Peplowski, said she doesn't think she's better of than she was four years ago. Her house in foreclosure and without a job, she admits she sounds like a grim statistic from her economically distressed state.
"I'm the 47 percent," she said. "I'm on food stamps and Medicaid. So, I'm one of those people."
Four years ago she was swept up by the tide of enthusiasm around candidate Barack Obama.
"I was an Obama mama and I was proud to claim it," she said, adding that she's "not as enthused anymore."
Mitt Romney, she said, "could be a change. I just don't know if it would be for the better."
Omar Lopez, a single father, came to the U.S. from Colombia 13 years ago. Now a U.S. citizen, he owns a real estate business in Las Vegas, surviving in one of the most depressed housing markets in the country. He supported President Obama four years ago, but said he does not feel better off than four years ago.
"We've had to down-size," he said of his company.
He too, has grown disillusioned.
When asked what he thought what Romney's strong suits were, he said: "his business side of view -- he knows how to make money! And our country needs to start making money."
Still, Romney has yet to win this businessman over. Lopez wants specifics: which tax loopholes will Romney close, what will he do about immigration?
"I'm still holding off [my decision], yes," Lopez said.
It's voters like Lopez and Peplowski that had President Obama's back in Nevada Sunday. Both candidates are battling hard for this battleground state, both on the ground to get out the vote and carpet bombing the airwaves with political ads.
"My plan will create 12,000,000 new jobs," one Romney ad says. But Lopez said he needs more information.
"It's not just 'we're going to generate more jobs.'" Lopez said. "Tell me how! Where?"
Peplowski said she's still very much undecided. "Today it could be Obama. Tomorrow it could be Romney. It only depends on what happens when Ii step foot in the voting booth."
Peplowski and Lopez both hope the debates will help them finally make up their minds.
