Counting The Immigrant Vote

Some of the voters hitting the polls today are doing so for the very first time. Officials are expecting large turnouts in predominantly immigrant neighborhoods around the country. According to the Immigration Policy Center, there are about 3 million more naturalized citizens today than there were during the last presidential election.

Pro-immigrant activists hope the uptick in naturalized citizens in recent years will bring a rush of new voices to the ballot box, and that the votes of these new Americans could have a significant impact on this election.

The group Feet in Two Worlds trains and mentors immigrant journalists to help them cover stories in their communities from a new American’s perspective. These reporters are out in force today, covering election-day issues at polling-places in immigrant-rich communities around the country, including Nashua, NH.

We speak with the project’s executive producer, John Rudolph, as well as Brazilian-born journalist Eduardo de Oliviera, who writes for the Nashua Telegraph and for New England Ethnic News at UMass-Boston, and is reporting from Nashua’s Ward One, which represents an area of town with a high Latino population.

We also hear from another kind of first-time voters: those who just turned old enough to cast their own ballots. But getting young voters to show up at the polls is an effort, and getting them to pay attention to the issues is another thing all together. Victoria Cruz is a student in the South Bronx. She’s not old enough to vote herself yet, but like a lot of young people, this year’s presidential race has sparked something in her – she’s suddenly curious about politics and the electoral process. Her friend Juan is old enough to vote, but he’s not sure he wants to get involved. Victoria produced this story for WNYC's Radio Rookies project. Click here to listen.

(Photo courtesy of Barack Obama)