Older voters will swing the election – fear over benefit cuts and economic malaise ensures it

It has become a political truism that older voters — because of their numbers and their dedication to making it to the polls — decide elections at every level, from the White House to city and county councils. But what matters to them this year seems to vary as much as at any time in recent memory. And no party or candidate appears to have a lock on their hearts. For Mike Britt, 67, of Edmond, Oklahoma, the November elections are about dollars and cents. He’s been hit hard by rising prescription drug prices and inflation. Like others on a fixed income, Britt, a retired ­insurance ­auditor, notices each time property taxes, groceries and gasoline prices go up, especially since he drives nearly 200 miles each way to Texas and back to check on his mother, whom he and a sister help pay basic bills. “She has about the same amount coming in, but costs go up,” Britt says. Robert Fulkerson, 64, of Reno, Nevada, is focused on a more abstract vision: the future of the planet. He can still recall the song he and his classmates sang on the first Earth Day in 1970 as they cleaned up trash. His lifetime of environmentalism carries forward to this year’s election. Fear motivates some older voters this election cycle. “We’re about the only country in the world that doesn’t control immigration,” says Pam L., a 78-year-old from Nevada who participated in an AARP focus group last fall on election concerns. (Last names of those in the focus groups were kept confidential.) “Now that terrorism is going on, it’s not safe for the American people, and nobody seems to care about that.” These and other concerns will be on the minds of older voters when they enter the ­ballot booth. And since presidential elections have been so close in recent years, candidates seek the right formula to motivate a small sliver of the electorate that could prove decisive, says Bruce Oppenheimer, professor emeritus of political science at Vanderbilt University. “Older voters are a remarkably stable group,” Oppenheimer says. “It might take more to move them than those who do not have a long attachment to a political party.” A stronger economy, Social Security are top issues How the economy affects people personally matters most, AARP found after hearing from women 50 and older for a survey. Of women who work, 54 percent said they are not confident they will have enough money to retire when they would like. Forty-one ­percent of the retired women said they weren’t doing as well financially as they expected. “You can always count on older voters to be concerned about the economy, and in their world, it’s Social Security and Medicare,” says Nancy LeaMond, AARP chief advocacy and engagement officer. “And those are reliably the most important issues to older voters, no matter what election year it is.” Other surveys and polls confirm that. A Pew Research Center poll early this year found that strengthening the economy was the top issue for 4 out of 5 people 50 to 64 years old. Making Social Security fiscally sound was important to 77 percent of voters 65-plus, ranking third in a tie with immigration after terrorism and the economy. For those ages 50 to 64, 73 percent list Social Security, after the economy and defending against terrorism. A 54-year-old Arizona independent voter in an AARP focus group said medical deductibles and copays, along with high prices for goods, take a toll. “It’s just ridiculous. You go to the store, everything is expensive,” says Girlie C. High prescription drug prices were also a concern for many. Britt says his wife has a migraine-inducing rare illness that racks up high prescription bills of $1,100 monthly for one drug alone. “There has to be some way they can ­lower these drug prices. They’re just ­exorbitant,” he says. The polarized nature of politics has an impact on what voters see as important, says Beth Rickenbach, associate professor of psychology at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire. Immigration is one ­example: Nearly twice as many Republican voters as Democrats said it was important. Crime also is a much hotter issue for ­Republicans than for Democrats. And Democrats were more concerned than Republicans about climate change and environmental issues. In one focus group, a Republican woman said she was so frustrated with politicians’ dysfunction and polarization that she’d like to “give Congress a good talking-to.” She would tell lawmakers to set aside their pet projects and reelection concerns and focus on ethics and working together. Caregiving was on the minds of voters. About 87 percent of women support paid family leave benefits for caregivers, the AARP poll found. Women in the focus groups said they felt their caregiving work was undervalued. A 55-year-old caregiver named Kelley M. of ­Nevada asked, “For somebody like myself that had to give up their job so they could take care of their parent and not get paid for it: What are you gonna do about us?”