CHICAGO — If U.S. voters side with the majority of coin laundry owners who responded to October's AmericanCoinOp.com Wire survey, Mitt Romney will be elected the 45th president of the United States next month.
Roughly 71% of coin laundry owners polled in the anonymous, unscientific survey say they are supporting the Republican ticket of Romney and running mate Paul Ryan. Roughly 21% are supporting Democratic incumbents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and 7.1% are not sure at this time. No one who took the survey said they would not be voting for president, or that they are supporting a third-party or write-in candidate.
The state of the economy will be most influential in helping 42.9% of store owners decide how to cast their vote next month. (Respondents were asked to pick one issue from a list of 19, including “other.”) Next, in a tie for second at 17.9% each, are debt management and “other.” (Among respondents who picked “other,” most said more than one issue would influence their choice.) Equal shares of 7.1% see Social Security/Medicare or taxes as the key issue, while equal shares of 3.6% will be most influenced by homeland security or by a candidate's experience.
No matter who is elected next month, they will have a lot of work to do. Regardless of who's elected, what is the one issue that you think the administration must address immediately?
Among respondents, their answers most often related to the economy, government spending and job creation. Some examples:
- “People do not need our service when they do not have to go to work every day.”
- “Just like in business, you must have throughput to survive. Our government is killing—through taxes, regulations and simple lack of accountability—the production in our country.”
- “Our recent trend toward big...big...bigger government and the control the federal government wields in our personal and business lives.”
- “Until every average (not Mitt's average) American has a job and has money to spend, the economy will not pick up. Why haven't we had a WPA type of program where the government pays to rebuild our infrastructure and creates jobs, instead of giving the money to the banks who will not lend?”
While the Wire survey presents a snapshot of readers’ viewpoints at a particular moment, it should not be considered scientific.
Subscribers to Wire e-mails—distributed twice weekly—are invited to take the industry survey anonymously online each month. All self-service laundry owners and operators are encouraged to participate, as a greater number of responses will help to better define operator opinions and industry trends.
Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Bruce Beggs at [email protected].