Reply #7: Brooklyn, NY checking in [View All]

[Chovexani]

MASSIVE turnout in Flatbush area of Brooklyn. My neighborhood is like 99% black, with tons of Caribbean immigrants. My mom and I went at 6 am sharp and there were already quite a few people there...by the time we left the line was out the door, at 6:30 am! My mom is a nurse and most of the time she votes when the polls open due to her weird shifts, and she says that in 20+ years of living around here she's never seen this many people this early in the morning.

I chatted with the woman behind us while we were waiting for the folks to set up (a couple of machines still weren't plugged in yet, for those outside of NY we still vote on those ancient lever machines). She is Bajan and has lived here for 25 years, but after 2000 she was so angry she became a citizen so she could vote Bush out! How cool is that?! She says she has many friends, older immigrants who became citizens also because they felt so strongly about * stealing black folks votes and what he did to exploit 9/11.

Funny little story: my mom forgot to pull the lever back when she was done voting, but a poll worker stopped her and said "hey we want every vote to count!" and everyone laughed and clapped.

:D