Election Day Precinct Report: East Coast (Thank you President Obama! )

At Public School 72 in East Harlem, New York it was a remarkable scene. Today families walked, hand-in-hand, through the front doors. Mothers and daughters. Fathers and sons. Smiling. Laughing. All taking part in the most historic election in recent history.

Sonia Carballo walked out from the polling place with her daughter, Cristina. Carballo said, since they were little she always toolk her three daughters to her polling place. “I always told my girls that voting gives them the right to say something,” she said. Cristina, in her mid-twenties, nodded. She said, “by voting you can change the world.”

Today they voted for Obama. “He has a better understanding of us because he came from the same place we did,” Cristina said, referring to Obama’s age, race and upbringing. Carballo also brought her 11 year-old daughter and was returning later that evening with her 18 year-old daughter. “She is so excited to vote for the first time and I want to be here,” Carballo said.

Librado Acosta voted for the first time today as well. Acosta and his father, Librado Acosta, went to the polls together. They voted Obama with the hope he would help improve the economy. Librado said, “We need a fresh face in the White House to get the change we want.”

Alexander Ramos, a door clerk at the polling place, said one of the voting machines, #25, broke down a few times today. “People still voted, they just used paper ballots,” said Ramos. When asked if the votes would be counted, he said, “I hope so.” Within two hours at least two people angrily ran out of the polling place due to broken machines. One of these people, a man who said he would not talk because he was in a hurry to get to another polling place, called his situation, “very frustrating.”

“There were a lot more people than past elections,” said Yvette Nunez, a Republican Inspector at the polling place. Nunez, 54, has been working at the polls as a paid inspector since she was 18 years old. A registered Republican who voted for Bush in 2000 and 2004, Nunez voted for Obama today because she thinks he will bring needed change to the economy.

To view this article with picture on NYU's Pavement Piece's website go to the following link:
http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/pavement/in/election-day-precinct-report-east-harlem-precinct/

To view my short video on a group in East Harlem who chose not to vote on November 4th:
http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/pavement/in/harlem/no-vote-harlem/