Nov 5, 2002 By Jennifer Peter Associated Press 3 min read

For Tim Oliver, an Alabama convenience store worker, going to the polls isn’t really a choice. It’s simply a fall tradition and duty, guided this year by his concern for the stumbling economy. “In the last 25 years, house prices have gone up. Car prices have doubled. Food prices have gone up. But the wages for the working man haven’t gone up,” said Oliver, 46, a Democrat, during a pre-election visit to a Birmingham barber shop.

For Jack Shiner of Dallas, the issues are also important but he sees no one in either party tackling them in the Texas races for Senate and governor.

“I’m disappointed because I think they all are crooked,” said Shiner, a 65-year-old Republican.

Across the country, voters like Oliver and Shiner are getting ready to cast ballots Tuesday to elect 435 members of Congress, 34 U.S. Senators and 36 governors. It’s an anxious electorate battered by aftershocks of Sept. 11, declining pension funds and barrage of bad news from corporate America.

Their choices could reshape the balance of power in Washington and determine the success of President Bush’s agenda in the final two years of his term.

Still, many who can vote won’t. Turnout is expected to be as low as it was during the 1998 midterm elections, when just 35.3 percent of the voting age population cast ballots.

For those who do head to the polls, reasons are varied. While some cite a simple devotion to democracy, others hope their voices will be heard on issues ranging from whether a local park will be built to the possibility of war in Iraq.

“I’m unhappy about the focus on war instead of the economy,” said Abim Kolawole, a Democrat from Brooklyn, Mass. “I think it’s outrageous … especially since I see no credible reason for attacking Iraq.”

Rad Leahey, of Santa Monica, Calif., said his decision to vote reflects a level of optimism.

“Politicians are taking money from special interests without paying much attention to issues that really needed to be addressed,” said Leahey, 59. “There’s a military industrial corporate complex that’s increasingly moving us in the direction of military conquest and global domination. … The situation is pretty out of control at this point. But I’m hopeful.”

For Bridgett Overston, of Dallas, voting decisions are based on party ideology rather than the worth of the competing candidates.

“I was born and raised a Democrat,” she said. “I’m going to vote straight-ticket.”

But party affiliation didn’t help Republican Susan Carlson of Billings, Mont., make her choice in the state’s U.S. Senate race. Carlson, 47, voted absentee for Democratic Sen. Max Baucus over Republican candidate Mike Taylor, who briefly dropped out of the race because of an ad that he said depicted him as a crook.

“It’s getting harder in the world to vote straight Republican or Democrat,” Carlson said. “We’re not just a Republican-Democratic society anymore. The issues aren’t so black and white.”

For Bob Meuse, 37, of Saugus, Mass., the issues are clear but his choice for Massachusetts governor is not despite weeks of warring rhetoric between Republican Mitt Romney and Democrat Shannon O’Brien.

“Schooling is the main thing for me,” said Meuse, whose daughter will soon be entering kindergarten. “But do I have any idea who I’m voting for? Not at all.”

Lonna Garai, 51, of Queen Valley, Ariz., said she plans to cast a ballot Tuesday for one simple reason – to quell her conscience after Election Day.

“I just feel that if I don’t vote, I have no recourse to complain,” she said.