New Haven Register Community Engagement Editor Angela Carter asks seniors about their concerns at Branford's Canoe Brook Senior Center. (Mara Lavitt/New Haven Register)

By Angela Carter, Staff Reporter

Since Dec. 21, we’ve periodically posted an issue poll online to gauge which topics the public would like our reporting to focus on.

The state of the economy and a stubborn unemployment rate have topped voters’ concerns since that date, without any shift from the No. 1 position.

It has come up at each of our in-person voter forums in Branford, Cheshire, Milford, New Haven and Torrington.

If your thoughts have not already been counted, please fill out the poll here and let us know if you would be willing to attend a public discussion. And there certainly is room for you to tell us if you are concerned about something that we have not listed in the 16 poll questions:

Rounding out the top five are taxation, national debt, health care reform, financial industry and banking reform and immigration policy. These issues have tied at third and fifth place at times and bumped each other higher or lower as more people answer the poll.

Reporters will be assigned to the top five issues that you help select, rather than simply covering individual candidates and their public events and press conferences. We will take an in-depth look at the issues that concern you most, while fact-checking the candidates’ responses to them as well.

During our forums, people also have raised concerns about education, redirecting funds that were dedicated to the Iraq war, families falling out of the middle class, energy independence, the Citizens United Supreme Court decision and the influence of money – especially corporate contributions – in elections and donor transparency. They have asked us to watch the flow of money as it moves through the campaigns here in Connecticut, and we will.

Email Angela Carter at acarter@nhregister.com. Follow her on Twitter @ReachAngi.