When given a choice between Barack Obama and John McCain for President, 14% of voters are uncommitted. That figure includes 6% who say they’d vote for some other candidate and 8% who are undecided.

But, while much has been made of John McCain’s struggles with his party’s conservative base, 33% of the uncommitted voters are Democrats while only 19% are Republicans. Forty-eight percent (48%) are not affiliated with either major political party. These results are from national telephone survey interviews conducted with 14,000 Likely Voters during the two weeks ending July 24. The sample includes 2,028 uncommitted voters.

It’s worth noting that there are far more uncommitted voters at this point in Election 2008 than there were four years ago. The Election 2004 Presidential Tracking Poll showed that 92% of voters were committed to either President Bush or Senator Kerry on July 24, 2004. Only 8% were uncommitted.

This year, 37% of the uncommitted voters plan to vote for a Democratic Congressional candidate while 22% say they’ll vote for the GOP. But, when asked which way they’re leaning in the race for the White House, 26% say McCain and 19% say Obama. Twenty percent (20%) say they still prefer a third-party candidate.

Uncommitted Republicans are far more likely to lean towards McCain than uncommitted Democrats are to lean towards Obama.

Full crosstabs are available for Premium Members. A demographic profile of the uncommitted voters is also available.

This analysis is based upon polling data collected during the two weeks ending July 24. For the overall sample, Obama had 44% to 42% advantage. With leaners, the results were Obama 47% to 45%. Current results are available at the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll.