It's hard to believe that after the Fox News interviews, the daily barrage of scream ads, and all the history of these two candidates, anyone would remain undecided with less than three weeks until Election Day.

And yet they were surprisingly easy to find, drinking lattes at a Starbucks mall, flipping through magazines at Barnes & Noble, and eating eggs with their spouses at a pancake restaurant. Some were leaning toward former President Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris, but were waiting for family reunions or a final round of online research. Others hoped for inspiration on the trip to the station on November 5th.

Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris hugs a child after speaking during a campaign rally at Washington Crossing Historic Park in Washington Crossing, Pennsylvania, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024.

(Jacquelyn Martin/Associated Press)

I spent three jam-packed days last week in three developed states that have proven crucial in deciding the presidency during the Trump era – Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin – both on and off the campaign trail with Harris spoken to voters.

Polls show the race is dead in the three so-called “blue wall” states and the four other battlegrounds, with about 5% of voters undecided. But broad polling makes it difficult to capture the complexities and contradictions running through voters' minds as they process an unprecedented election in which a candidate is trying to overturn his 2020 election defeat and the first president in the History would be, who was accused and convicted of crimes several times.

I found Democrats battling insomnia and changing travel plans, Republicans friendly to a reporter but wary of the mainstream media and overwhelmed by a sense of disillusionment.

“Both are not good,” said Amgad Fram, a 61-year-old engineer from a Detroit suburb called Novi, who was meeting a friend for coffee.

Amgad Fram of Detroit remains undecided in the final three weeks of the campaign, but is leaning 60-40 to vote for Trump.

(Noah Bierman / Los Angeles Times)

He began the conversation by saying he would vote for Trump for the third time because he would “stop the flood of people coming into this country.”

“You know, I shouldn’t say that because I’m a foreigner,” said Fram, who moved from Jordan in 1981.

He said he was angry about a recent break-in at his brother's villa by Ecuadorian migrants living here illegally. As a warning example, he pointed to the extremely high unemployment in Jordan, which has one of the highest numbers of refugees in the world.

But the conversation turned when he began talking about Trump's refusal to recognize the 2020 election and his increasingly authoritarian rhetoric.

“I don’t really like it,” Fram said. “The reason we immigrated to this country first was to be free and get rid of these dictators.”

He put his current chances of supporting Trump at 60% and said it depends on meeting his extended family.

The more committed Republicans I spoke with tended to dismiss these aspects of Trump's rhetoric, accusing the media of double standards and accusing prosecutors of pushing a political agenda.

Donald Trump arrives to speak at a meeting of the Detroit Economic Club in Detroit on Thursday.

(Julia Demaree Nikhinson/Associated Press)

“You kind of dance with the devil, you know,” said Yves Francois, a 55-year-old salesman from Hartland, Michigan, who was eating a quick, casual Middle Eastern lunch with his friend in Oakland County, just outside Detroit. “Do I have a problem with that? I don’t know,” he said of the criminal charges and convictions. “The timing of this seems pretty crazy when these are things that could have happened four, five, six, seven years ago and now they're bringing them to light.”

He was curious whether I would ask Harris supporters similar questions, but said he didn't mind and wished we could all have a more civil dialogue. In his opinion, Trump's comments worry people and then “we take our eyes off the things that are really obvious,” namely the economy and the broken immigration system.

The Harris campaign has spent the last few weeks imploring voters to keep an eye on Trump's threats to use the military against his political enemies, his attempts to overturn the last election that led to the Jan. 6 insurrection, and the number of former senior members of his national security staff who have warned that he poses a threat to democracy. They are frustrated that Americans now have a much higher approval rating for his presidency than they did when he was in office.

“We barely survived,” said Olivia Troye, a former national security official in the Trump administration who praised the actions of her former boss, Vice President Mike Pence, and others who pushed back against Trump.

Troye spoke to me on a brisk fall day in Washington Crossing, Pennsylvania, a historic park on the Delaware River, after appearing on stage with Harris and other Republicans who warned against Trump.

Olivia Troye speaks at a Kamala Harris campaign rally in Washington Crossing, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday.

(Matt Slocum/Associated Press)

“When he starts talking about using the military against people or about law enforcement, I think we should take that very seriously because those discussions took place in the White House, where he actually talked about shooting Americans,” continued Troye gone. “That’s what I was there for. I witnessed that. No president should ever talk about shooting his own people.”

That's scaring staunch Democrats like Claudia Seldon, a retired rehab nurse who was having her Wednesday coffee with friends at a cafe in downtown Detroit earlier in the day.

“I'm worried about what will happen if he wins and what will happen if he doesn't win,” said Seldon, who plans to leave for her winter home in Nevada early this year to avoid travel during possible unrest related to the Avoid elections.

Her friends Heather Hamilton and Joan Nagrant were counting mail-in ballots at the convention center in 2020 when crowds tried to disrupt the process, a foreshadowing of Jan. 6. They were sequestered but remain nervous about returning for the job this year.

Heather Hamilton, Claudia Seldon and Joan Nagrant discussed their election plans over coffee in downtown Detroit.

(Noah Bierman / Los Angeles Times)

Many voters are seeing Harris' ads with Troye and others running in battleground states. But some only hear political noise. The leaflets that arrive through the mailbox pile up but remain unread. These voters manage to avoid news about the two candidates that race back and forth across their states on an almost weekly basis.

“It's less about us and more about them,” said Daniel Santos, a 36-year-old water company employee from Racine, Wisconsin, who voted for former Presidents Obama and Trump and has yet to make a decision this time.

Daniel Santos, 36, who works for a water company in Racine, Wisconsin, is still undecided in the presidential race.

(Noah Bierman / Los Angeles Times)

“I’m going to vote,” said Ana Gallo, a 36-year-old warehouse worker who was putting up Halloween decorations outside her small home in Racine. “I need to sit down and think about it and read a little bit about what’s going on.”

A U.S. citizen from Mexico, she has been working on her husband's legal status for more than a decade. This will take a toll on their vote, as well as the economy. Trump says a lot of “exaggerated” things, but she doesn't believe he governed that way during his time in office, she said. She's still learning about Harris.

Regina Gallacher, a 58-year-old physical therapist from Rochester Hills, Michigan, said she was looking for a third-party candidate because Trump “really scares me,” but she “doesn't warm up” when she hears Harris talk and found hers Replacing President Biden on the ballot “very slimy.”

Her husband, a union Democrat, is voting for Trump for the first time, but they don't talk about it at home because Gallacher, who becomes increasingly repulsed when Trump appears on television, would prefer to avoid a heated conversation with her husband about what is unlikely to be his opinion change. If she has to choose between the two, it will be Harris, she said. But she is insecure.

“We will get there” if Trump wins, she said. “I’m just not going to be happy about it.”

Regina Gallacher, a 58-year-old physical therapist from Rochester Hills, Michigan, said she is looking for a third-party candidate.

(Noah Bierman / Los Angeles Times)

Just when the divisions seemed at their darkest, I met Jim Kusters, a retiree and Trump supporter, sitting at breakfast in Mt. Pleasant, Wisconsin, with his two friends: a Harris voter and a former Robert F. Kennedy Jr. supporter ., who wouldn't say who will get his vote now.

Kusters said his biggest problem is media bias. But that didn't stop him from talking to a reporter or chatting with his friends. It wasn't personal for any of them. As they shot at the candidates, they told stories about their families.

“We go back and forth all the time,” Kusters said.

Like almost everyone I met, they are ready for the end of the campaign.

“Trump is obviously crazy, and then Harris, I don’t think she has a plan,” said Clayton Ewing, a 63-year-old retiree from Shelby Township, Michigan, who voted for Trump in previous elections.

Ewing said he may wait until he gets to the polls to make a final decision.

“I just hope whoever comes in does a good job,” he said. “We can go on for four years and get some new characters.”