Like 90 million of his fellow Americans, Jim Walsh of Royal Oak, Mich., sat down with his family last Thursday night to watch the first Ford-Carter debate on their 21-in. color TV. But, unlike their neighbors, the Walshes had invited a stranger into the family room of their suburban home. Both Jim and Pat Walsh were undecided about whom they would vote for on Nov. 2. So Detroit Bureau Chief Edwin Reingold asked if he could join them for the debate, to report firsthand on their reactions to the candidates.

Jim Walsh was one of 60 uncommitted voters selected for TIME by Daniel Yankelovich and Ruth Clark of the public opinion research firm Yankelovich, Skelly & White Inc., which has done political polling for us since 1972. TIME correspondents last week visited seven of these families, and talked by telephone with most of the rest, to gauge what if anything the debate had done to swing them to a commitment.

"It was a civics lesson of the most practical sort," reports Reingold on his assignment. "The Walshes are young, aware and concerned. It seemed right that the candidates should be vying for those two votes." Still not completely decided, the Walshes plan to watch the remaining debates before making a final choice.

TIME has published five Yankelovich polls since the 1976 presidential campaign began last January, plus a special report of interviews with our Citizens' Panel of 300 registered voters, to get a detailed picture of what the public thinks about the candidates and the issues. We will present the results of more polls, and another Citizens' Panel survey, between now and Election Day.

During his interviewing for the latest poll (TIME, Sept. 6), Yankelovich discovered how uncertain a host of voters feel. "In 1972," he says, "people had pretty much made up their minds before the campaign began." This time, even those who do favor Ford or Carter are surprisingly soft in their support. After surveying the response to the debate throughout the Midwest late last week, Chicago Bureau Chief Benjamin Gate concurs with Yankelovich: "The road to the White House is as wide open as ever."

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