COMADRE USA

STOMPING THE VOTE, EL BARRIO STYLE  

by Juana Bimba

Heard about blatant, crude, public voter suppression attempts? Here’s a peek at smaller, more private, more insidious, (but no less lethal) aspects of voter suppression.  

A few years ago, I argued with one of my neighbors on Roosevelt Island, some moronic alterations lady who saw fit to reposition a row of buttons on the wrong side of my blazer. I wasn’t too nice about it, and I permanently damaged whatever superficial acquaintance we'd had until then.

My bad. As my mother used to say, no hay enemigo chiquito— there is no small enemy. Some time after our altercation, this same woman was hired as a poll worker at the local voting site. 

And wouldn’t you know it, during the last New York gubernatorial elections, the wretch tried to block my entry to the polls, asking me questions about where I lived and pretending she didn't know me. I kept mentioning my building and pointing to my customary station inside the voting facility, but she wouldn't budge. This went on for a while.

I was on the verge of panic, when the other poll workers came to my rescue and waved me through. Most are minority women who have been my neighbors for years, but my wannabe vote blocker was also a minority person: an elderly Puerto Rican who is active in community affairs, and who decided to use whatever low-rent power she's gained to intimidate me.

Could this Puerto Rican additionally dislike me because I’m a Cuban?  It’s not unheard of.  Even if so, I could never return the favor: my own son is half Puerto Rican, and we’re all supposed to be as Uno, remember? Kumbayah, and all that…

Plus, I have lived and voted in Roosevelt Island for a long time. My name, information and a copy of my signature have been on the island's voting rolls for years.

However,I feared another door-blocking incident during this year's primary elections, so I grabbed every bit of ID I could find and stuffed it in my purse before heading out to the polls.

Fortunately, the staffers at the voting site had already moved to prevent any more trouble: the woman stationed at the entrance this time welcomed me with a smile, gave me the number of my polling station and even pointed me towards it for good measure. 

But I noticed that all of this was done in a rather hurried fashion, as though they were hustling

me inside before my erstwhile antagonist could intervene. Needless to say, I was surprised that she hadn’t been dismissed after that first door-blocking incident (she must have friends in low places).

Though right was done by me in the end, I still feel vulnerable because I’m a naturalized Cuban, and everyone here knows this about me, including anyone who might want to use it to mess with my voting rights.

I don't believe that I was being "innocently" questioned by a person trying to act "responsibly" in her "official" capacity--given the circumstances, there was no need. And I don’t believe that she was just playing silly games to amuse herself. 

At best, it felt like bullying, at worst, like an assault on my voting rights.

And if I’d been less educated, less articulate, or living in a larger, more impersonal community, she might have gotten away with it! Now, I’m hoping some very permanent steps will be taken to prevent this from happening again (translation: I hope to never see this woman’s face at the polls again, unless she’s exercising her own voting rights).

So I e-mailed a shorter version of my little story to New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer, who’s been taking copious local complaints in a similar vein, BTW.

It seems several thousand names magically disappeared from New York voting rolls just before the primaries.

Recount for Bernie, anyone? That may be yet another story, amigos…