Considering the possibility that the Senate will flip parties, this will be a particularly important election to vote in.

Coincidentally, I've been working with the UT Energy Poll on their latest poll for the past month, and I've had the chance to preview the issues that Americans think are important in this upcoming election.

This nationally representative poll asks Americans the question, "Where is it most important for the U.S. government to spend your tax dollars?," and they're given 8 options:

Education

Energy

Environment

Health care

Infrastructure development/maintenance

Job creation

Military and defense

Social Security

We then break the answers down by various categories such as gender, political affiliation, level of education, etc. to see where Americans differ — and agree — in opinion. One of the most striking disparities in opinion revealed itself when we looked at the responses by age: