Speaking of that 5 percent-6 percent voter turnout yesterday, sometimes it takes a legal immigrant to put us “citizens” to shame. It happened yesterday at our polling place in Merriman Park, where SweetCharity and I proudly voted for insurgent DISD candidate Bruce Parrott (Zac!). Ahead of us in line was a new neighbor we’d met Halloweening with his family last Saturday–a legal U.S. resident from Burma/Myanmar by way of Thailand. Trying to communicate in broken English, the Burma native was showing his I.D. card and pleading with the poll official to let him vote. After the official explained that one needs to be a citizen to cast a ballot, our neighbor finally “got it” and walked away, dejected but smiling. Ironic to be reminded about the importance of voting by a guy from Burma–a police state marked by political repression, forced labor and ethnic cleansing.
4 comments
This story sounds fishy…
No voting place I saw yesterday had a line.
Our polling place had a line of about 5 people.
There was a strange occurrence with the guy behind me. He told the official his only voter ID card is from 5 years ago and asked if he can still vote. The official said yes.
He then said his wallet was stolen and asked if he can vote without a picture ID. The official said yes.
The guy then said he’d be back later and left.
Everyone wondered what was up.
We concluded he was watching the polls to see if people were being allowed to vote. He was likely headed to another polling place to continue his test.
Great story! During the November elections, I went to my Caucus with two naturalized citizens.
As for Burma, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, winner of the Nobel prize still is in prison because of the fight for democracy. I’m embarrassed to say I didn’t vote. Thanks for the reminder of what a privilege it is.
I’ve known people tortured to protect the right to vote. We take it for granted.
Another good reason to go out to vote, you get to witness all kinds of things you might otherwise be unaware of.
Years ago, a woman in front of me was being harassed as she tried to vote. (Mostly because the election operators were tired and the woman was getting stressed trying to communicate in English only.) I agreed to sign-on as an interpreter to help her go through the process of filling out the ballot in Spanish. It took two hours (my Spanish is not so good, folks). But it was mainly patience that was needed in this situation.
Voter intimidation comes in many forms and we all can help by being present.