The Voters Who Decide Elections Don’t Like What They See

Tony Grauslys, a 56-year-old merchandiser from Hudson, N.H., is upset that lawmakers focus on other countries’ problems when America can’t fix its own. Marvin Jenkins, 60, a retired state trooper in Saginaw Township, Mich., worries that both leading presidential candidates are too old. Juliet Will-Robinson, 38, a graduate student from Freemansburg, Pa., wishes there was a viable third-party alternative.

The three voters live in a trio of counties that will have outsize influence in deciding the winner of this year’s presidential election. Michigan’s Saginaw County, Pennsylvania’s Northampton County and New Hampshire’s Hillsborough County are three of just 25 U.S. counties that have backed the presidential winner in each of the past four elections, making them rare enclaves of partisan flexibility in a country where most places are firmly red or blue. They are among the seven such counties that sit inside hotly contested battleground states that will decide who wins the White House this year, places where the victor can hinge on a few hundred votes.