More than a 100 voters wait in line in the rain to cast their ballots at the Clintonville-Beechwold polling station in the 2004 U.S. presidential election in Columbus, Ohio, yesterday.
-Reuters photo
Lolita Long, Gleaner US Editor
NEW YORK:
THE CARIBBEAN communities turned out yesterday in "record and unprecedented numbers" to vote in the United States presidential race, with analysts putting the figure as high as 80 per cent.
Reports are that the numbers overall, exceed the 105 million people who voted in the 2000 elections.
In New York alone, there were 435,000 new voters, and from that figure, officials estimated that more than 60 per cent had Caribbean connections.
The energy level at most polling stations in New York, Florida, Ohio and New Jersey was said to have been "high and encouraging."
Long lines and crowds were characteristic of many centres around the country.
Foster Dublin, president of the Caribbean for Kerry campaign, was miles away from New Jersey campaigning in Ohio and was out of breath when The Gleaner caught up with her.
"The voter turnout is up about 15-20 per cent in the Caribbean communities," she said.
RECORD NUMBERS
"People who have never been registered, and living here for nearly 35 years, turned out in record numbers. It has been a great campaign."
Foster Dublin spearheaded the group, Caribbean for Kerry, as a political endeavour to mobilise Caribbean Americans to vote. The group's personnel were drawn from Jamaica, Grenada, Haiti, Trinidad, Barbados, St. Kitts, Belize, Dominican Republic, Venezuela and Guyana.
Yvette Clarke, New York Council-woman, was also out of state in Lauderdale Lakes, Florida and showing support for counterpart, Commissioner Hazel Rogers.
"I had to come to the battleground," she said, in reference to the debacle that plagued that state in the 2000 elections.
One voter, Claire Roberts, reached the polling station in Flushing, Queens, at 8:00 a.m., and she said the centre was crowded. She was given her voting number, and was told to go elsewhere about three blocks away to cast her vote. She was determined to vote, and walked to the new centre to vote.
In Brooklyn, another voter said that she arrived at the designated centre at 10:00 a.m. and was number 240 in line. "It's the first time I ever see anything like this," she said, adding that she has been living in the U.S. since the 1980s. She said that she waited for more than two hours to vote.
Gerri Peterkin, president of the Caribbean American Democratic Club, Florida, was ecstatic about the voter turnout in Broward County, Florida.
"The black Caribbean voters turned out in record numbers. We got them out."
Reports are that an estimated 100,000 voters were registered in the English-speaking Caribbean community in south Florida.
SPECIAL NOTE:
The result of the United States Presidential Election was not ready at the time of this site's publication. This site will be updated by 11:00a.m. to reflect the results.
