Pocketbooks, not politics, may pick the next president

Kamala Harris Donald Trump

A day before the 2022 midterm election The Rochester Voice took an unofficial poll of folks relaxing on the Rochester Common to find out if they planned on voting.
Sadly, the majority of folks we talked to said they weren't going to vote, didn't trust the system and didn't trust the government.
It's a refrain we've come to hear a lot.
"All politicians are liars, that's what politicians do," I've heard over and over again.
I know a lot of low propensity voters; they have their reasons, and I've learned not to question their motus operandi.
So I was heartened recently when one of those previously low-propensity voters - knowing I ran The Rochester Voice and was keeping up with this fall's ongoing presidential campaign - asked me about voting early by absentee ballot.
I told them it was was pretty darn easy. I just went to Lebanon Town Hall, picked up a ballot, went home, filled it out in two minutes and dropped it off in a lockbox outside Town Hall the next day.
I believe a lot of low-propensity voters will be going to the polls or filling out absentee ballots in early voting this cycle.
Why? The cost of food, gas, home heating oil, auto insurance, home insurance, propane, auto and home loan rates, dining out, internet service. You name it, it's gone up, way more than my social security check, way more than most people's wages.
When people vote their pocketbooks they clearly have some skin in the game.
And while those folks at the Common were pretty apathetic in November 2022, an elections assistant in the Rochester City Clerk's Office said today that there's more action than apathy this time around.
"We have a steady stream of voters coming into to the office every single day," said Elections Assistant Jenny Goodfield. "It's fascinating. We've had people in their 80s who've never voted coming in to get an absentee ballot. We've also had a lot of people coming in to register to vote for the first time."
Let's face it. Pocketbook issues, not politics, may pick the next president.
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