'It doesn’t matter if I had to sit out here all day’: Early voters in NYC come out in force, motivated to make a change in leadership
They came extra-early and eager for change — waiting on impossibly long lines for as long as four hours to cast ballots Saturday on the first day of New York’s early voting for the presidential election.
When 10 a.m. rolled around, hundreds burst into wild cheers and applause as the Campos Community Center at E. 13th St. and Avenue C opened its doors to lines of voters who circled the center and snaked all the way to Avenue B in the East Village.
“I was jumping at the beat, refreshing the website with the early voting everyday,” said Leah Faerstein, 65, a neighborhood resident since 1980. "I came at 9 a.m. I expected a line but not quite this big. I’ve been waiting to vote forever … because it’s our last chance as a democracy.
“I grew up in Romania and so I’ve seen what happens to a country where voting doesn’t mean anything. Everything that is happening feels so familiar and terrifying," she said.
And at 4 p.m., when the polls shuttered for the day, enthusiasm hadn’t waned.
Vickie Bollorino of Morrisania was last voter allowed into the polling site at the Bronx County Supreme Court, declaring, “I just made it!”
But Manhattan voter Valerie Rochon, 68, missed the cut at the Armory in Washington Heights.
“This is just the first day but we can vote all week. I’ll be here tomorrow morning," she promised.
Throughout the day, there was an abundance of patience about waits, and a sense of resolve.
Like Edwin Maldonado, 61, who showed up before 9 a.m. and hunkered down in a lawn chair to wait his turn to vote at Williamsburg Community Center in Brooklyn.
“What’s the sense of talking about the situation if you’re not going to do anything about it? I’m from this community and what’s transpired in this community especially with people of color ... I came out to vote supporting my community, participating in the marches. That’s how you make difference,” the Bushwick voter explained.
“It doesn’t matter if I had to sit out here all day, it’s a cause,” he said.
East Williamsburg resident Sivan Salem, 29, said voting will be her generation’s chance to be heard in a fractious, uncertain political environment.
“I showed up to vote because I completely disagree with our president’s policies and want to make sure my voice is heard,” she said. “I think this is the most important election of our generation.”
Dr. Hilda Fernandez, 45, made herself comfortable on the sidewalk with her laptop to get some work done. She said early voting was her best option to get her ballot counted.
“I work full time so if I don’t come today I won’t be able to come on voting days, this is very important to me,” she said. “I’m a doctor and I’m very upset with how things have been handled with COVID. I just really think we need to have better leadership.”
Cathy Mcglinchey, 71, who’s lived in Stuyvesant Town for 60 of her 71 years, patiently leaned against her fold-up shopping cart and cane while waiting her turn. She said it was important to show up and “not to be apathetic.”
“You have to vote, one way or the other,” she said, "That’s a privilege for us and we have to do it... If you didn’t vote you can’t complain.”
The wait was daunting at some locations. Voters on the Upper East Side of Manhattan said they were waiting as long as four hours to cast their ballots.
It didn’t matter.
Priscilla Vaccaro, 73, called her wait to vote at Robert Wagner Middle School on 75th St. "the best four hours that I’ll ever spend.”
“Because it’s so important, it’s beyond important. It’s the reason I’m going to stay in NYC," she said.
Then there was Mary Ann Halford, 62, and her daughter Kate Meany, 21, who was voting in her first presidential election at the Robert Wagner Middle School.
“She’s managed to go out and get some drinks while mom holds our place in line” Halford joked.
"My grandmother was the one who taught me to love (voting) because she was born in 1903 under Tammany hall and when she was born she didn’t have the right to vote.”
Daughter Kate proudly declared herself “a patriot.”
“I want to live in a country where we are free and I think there are major threats to our democracy right now. I think our nation is really divided right now.”
Other young voters echoed enthusiasm and hope for the country’s future.
“I’m just happy to see so many people out voting,” Madison Honore, 18, said as she waited to cast her ballot at the early voting site at York College in Queens. “It’s just good to see so many people have that sense of urgency to get this guy out of office.”
“Voting (President Trump) out means the safety of the lives of millions of other people in this country,” she said.
East Village resident TJ Fennell, with more than a decade of voting experience said it was important to participate this year “just to exercise our right. Especially the way 2020 has wrapped up."
“We are the greatest country on earth and we don’t act like it and that’s the saddest thing in the world," he added.
At a York College site in Queens, Mandissa Whittington, 32, of St. Albans, recalled that her first vote was for Barack Obama in 2008, and it as an “exciting" experience,
“Now it feels like you have to vote,” she said. “It’s a little more dark, it’s kind of sad.”
“The country is really divided so I’m not sure how this election will turn out," she added. "It’s tricky, its almost like there is two Americas and I’m hoping that changes.”
