Voter Profiles: Five Views From Chesterfield Voters

Chesterfield Patch spent this morning at the polls, talking with voters about the issues that are important to them and how they influenced their decisions.

Below are five short profiles of voters representing different political views, age groups and perspectives. These Chesterfield residents were mainly asked about the presidential race between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney as well as the close contest for a U.S. Senate seat between Democrat Claire McCaskill and Republican Todd Akin. 

Will Edgar, voted for Romney

The 2012 election was the first 18-year-old Will Edgar had participated in and he found himself struggling with which candidate to chose. True to teenager form, he said he put off his decision until the final day. 

The issue that tilted him toward Mitt Romney concerns Edgar's choice of future career: underwater welding. 

"I'm going to school to be an underwater welder and Mitt's all for starting all sorts of drilling, particularly off the East Coast," he said, adding that Obama has sought to restrict it. So, when did he decide? "When I woke up this morning."

Edgar also said that he's fiscally fairly conservative and doesn't like to see the government handing out checks to those he feels don't deserve it.

However, he explained that kids of his generation often don't fall into neatly divided party lines. He agreed that many of his friends could be described as fiscally conservative but socially liberal. 

"I feel like a lot of my friends believe that if it comes down to being moral, it should be left up to the individual," he said. 

Rick and Theresa Luebcke, voted for Obama and McCaskill

This Chesterfield couple came to vote together and said they share similar political views. Rick Luebcke represents an unusual case as a lifelong Republican who just cast his vote for Obama. 

"while I spent my career with a major automobile company and have supported the Republican party, I just don't think that their opinion of how the country should be run helps the people of the country in which they live," he said. 

Luebcke said he feels the Republican Party has "lost it's way" and become too one-sided. A self-described moderate, he feels a sense of rejection from his own party. 

"A middle-of-the-road Republican is the most toxic kind to be in this environment," he said. 

His wife, Theresa Luebcke, had strong words for Todd Akin and his controversial remarks concerning "legitimate rape."

"That's not just a slip of the tongue, that's what he feels and from my view that's unacceptable," she said.

Angela Debasto, voted for Romney and Akin

Like Will Edgar, Angela Debasto is another first-time voter. The 20-year-old business student said she is pro-life and believes that Romney has a better plan for how to balance the country's budget. 

"I don't like the things that have happened in the last four years. We need a change," she said. "The amount of people living off the government needs to go down."

After voting, Debasto will head to class for most of the evening, but when she goes home, she'll be facing a political opponent of her own. 

"My boyfriend is totally the opposite of me," she said with a laugh. "I get to be with him tonight, and there's probably going to be some fighting."

Lenell Pryor, voted for Obama and McCaskill

Although he did indeed show up to vote, Lennell Pryor expressed considerable cynicism about the state of American politics, noting that politicians from neither party were adept at tackling the nation's problems. 

"I'm not really a fan of the whole political system, it's a clog that is stuck and it's not even working," he said. 

Marjore Garrett, voted for Romney and Akin

A Roman Catholic, Marjore Garret said social issues were the most important factor to her, along with a candidate who has a strong belief in God. 

"His values are most closely in line with my own and if Obama couldn't do it in 4, he won't be able to do it in 8," she said.