New Voices at the Polls

ACORN's success in helping over 1.3 million people complete applications to register to vote in 2008 was spurred by the excitement of the coming election. Over 400,000 new voters told us they felt there needed to be changes in the economy, the housing crisis, and health care. Some reported feeling disempowered by previous polling problems in Ohio and Florida, but they felt that 2008 was in historic year in which their vote could truly make a difference. Below are the voices of a few of the new voters we helped to register in 2008.

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Lynncoyia Bradley is a lifelong resident of Cincinnati and grew up in the Lincoln Heights neighborhood. ACORN canvassers registered her to vote while she was at the mall.

As a young voter and a new mother to a nine month old, she feels this is a historic election year. “I have to vote this time because this is history with an African-American candidate. I want to be able to tell my daughter that I voted in the election in the year she was born.“ She adds, “I am excited about the election and how the candidates are different.”

“Previously, I felt like I didn’t know enough about the issues. This year, I know more and feel like I know more about the issues and the candidates and the different changes they are promising.”

She feels that the most important issues in this election are the economy and health care. Lynncoyia understands economic issues first hand. Her mother lost her home to foreclosure in 2006 and had a stroke last year.

Wayne Kyles of Columbus has been eligible to vote for many years but wasn’t registered. “Where I come from in the inner city, not too many people vote. It just seems like your vote doesn’t really matter, particularly after what happened in 2000 and 2004.”

But he feels newly empowered this year. “I registered this year because I believe it’s time for a change. I have little nieces and nephews and I don’t want them to go through the same things I went through.”

According to Wayne, he would like to see a lot of changes but health care rises to the top of his list, “We need a better health care system. It’s now a wreck. My mom’s getting older, I’m not rich, and I’d like to see her being taken care of.”

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This November, Maria Peinado, 52, a single mother and Mexico native will vote for the first time as a new American citizen. She became a citizen on May 2 and registered to vote the same day. “I have lived in this country for over twenty years – it’s time to have my voice heard,” Peinado said.

Peinado lives in Albuquerque, N.M., where she cleans houses and does laundry for a living. She wants her voice heard on matters of immigration reform, electing the President of the United States, and a better education system.

She feels passionately that America needs immigration reform. “We need to change the immigration laws to make them better. Right now they separate families and tear parents from their kids. I believe that this needs to change, and believe it will happen. It would help my family too.”

“Education is also so important,” said Peinado. “I never went to school and have had to work hard to make up for it. We need a good system here.”

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“I never voted before because I felt there was no one to vote for,” says Andrew Browder, age 38 from Detroit. He registered for the first time through the ACORN registration drive. “I’m tired of the economy. I’m tired of who is in there.” He feels his vote can make a difference this year. “I feel that if you don’t vote you miss your chance to make a change. You need to do it. You can’t sit back and do nothing.”

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Twenty eight-year-old Antonietta Jones was born in raised in Orlando. She confesses having spent her whole life with either voting or wanting to. Until now: “There is a lot of stuff going on in the world right now,” says Jones, “and I think if everyone that can get out and votes we have the opportunity to change things.” Jones was at a grocery store near her home this past August when she was approached by an ACORN canvasser. “I would have registered anyway, because I really feel it’s important to do so this year, but this way was just easier.” She gave the ACORN rep, whose name she can’t recall, her details and hopes to receive her brand new voter registration card in the mail any day now. “I tell you, I’m voting for change. We need it.”

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“I think that issues concerning children and education are important to mothers and that low income communities have the worst schools and need the most assistance programs,” says Celestine Balderas who registered to vote this year after becoming an American citizen. “My family is here and I want the right to be with them. As a citizen I will be able to be with them; as a voting citizen I will be able to fight for them,” said Balderas.

“The change I would love is more after-school programs for children and better daycare systems. So many working parents can’t get home until very late and their children deserve good care while their parents are working to feed them. These types of programs would help families,” said Balderas.

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Sheila Jones from St. Louis is 57 years old but has never voted before because of historical disenfranchisement of African-Americans in St. Louis. She registered to vote during the ACORN voter registration drive and feels newly empowered because she understands the resources she has available to her. "All of the safeguards in place make me feel like my vote will be counted" says Jones.