2008 Election

It was “laziness” that kept Chris Hatley from casting his ballot in 2004, he said, as he smoked a post-vote cigarette Election Day.

“I was very cynical about politics,” Hatley, 26, said outside of his polling place in Fort Hamilton, Brooklyn. But this year he wanted “to be a part of history.”

The same desire inspired many around the city to vote this year, resulting in lines that stretched down city blocks. Young and first-time voters like Hatley said they were inspired by the gripping presidential race that led to a historic election of America’s first black president.

Turnout was high across the board on Election Day, as expected, but it is unclear how many young and first-time voters came to the polls or what impact they had on the results.

New Registration Soars

The Obama campaign targeted first-time voters, such as young people and minorities, groups that have historically stayed home on Election Day. In New York City, more than715,000 names were added to the city’s voting rolls in the past year, said Frederic Umane, a commissioner of the city’s Board of Elections.

The board received 214,000 new registrations in the first week of October. That figure included people who have recently moved to New York and may have voted in recent elections, or who have re-registered after their registration was canceled.

New voters favored Obama over McCain by 60 percent to 30 percent, according to a MySpace/Wall Street Journal poll taken a month before Election Day. Voters between ages 18 and 29 favored the Democratic candidate by the same margin, according to Gallup.

“I am unhappy with the president we have, and I feel like I can’t complain because I didn’t vote in the last election,” said Lisa Duncan, 29, an accounting student at Kingsborough College. “And this time I figured I’d give it a shot and do my part, and try to prevent this from happening again.”

Past Elections

Youth voter turnout jumped in 2004, as did overall turnout. The youth vote favored Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, but it still didn’t turn the election in his favor.

The increase in turnout among young voters in 2004 and this Election Day bucks a 30-year trend, according to a report from The Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement . Since the ratification of the 26th Amendment in 1971, which lowered the voting age from 21 to 18, turnout among young voters in presidential elections has steadily declined, from a high of 55 percent in 1972, when Richard Nixon won, to a low of 40 percent in 2000, when George W. Bush won.

Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign, which aggressively targeted the youth vote, proved a exception to this decline.

That year, Clinton appeared on the popular “Arsenio Hall Show” to perform a cover of “Heartbreak Hotel” on his saxophone and told America on MTV’s “Choose or Lose” program that if he had to do it all over again, he would have inhaled a marijuana cigarette.

Even without such schlocky performances, Obama’s appeal to the young seems almost effortless.

Campaign Efforts

Obama’s campaign has also used technology — such as signing up supporters for text message alerts, viral Internet campaigning, and YouTube videos—to mobilize supporters and has staged traditional get-out-the-vote drives in early-voting states.
Obama’s popularity among the young may bode well for the Democratic Party in future elections. A Gallup poll from Oct. 23 found that 40 percent of new voters identified themselves as Democrats, 37 percent as Independents and only 23 percent as Republicans.

“That we’re seeing more new Democrats than new Republicans is meaningful not only for this election, but for elections to come,” said Patrick Egan, an assistant professor of politics at New York University. “Fifty years from now, we may see that this cohort is still voting Democratic.”

Nearly half of all new voters were from racial or ethnic minorities according to the Gallup poll.

“I think that certainly for African-Americans, and to a lesser extent, non-whites, the idea of a black guy being president is really resonant,” Egan said. “It’s really exciting to see.”

Eighteen-year-old Anthony Norris voted for the first time on Election Day with his grandmother, Mae Norris, 71. They are both black.

“When I was in kindergarten, we never thought a black man could become President
of the United States,” Anthony Norris said.

His girlfriend, Elisabeth Morgan, 18 and Latina, said having the chance to vote for Obama inspired her to dream big.

“Maybe,” she said, “I can be president one day.”

– With Mary Stachyra and Maureen Sullivan

John Martin of Woodlawn in the Bronx votes November 4, 2008, at a polling place near where he has lived his whole life. Photo by Indrani Datta

Harriet Christian is a lifelong Democrat and Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) supporter who voted for Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R-Az). Photo by Indrani Datta

Harriet Christian is a lifelong Democrat who works as a waitress in Manhattan. John Martin is a Navy reservist who’s always voted for Republicans.

They look like the stereotypical voters for their respective parties. And, for the first time in their lives, they voted for the opposing party’s candidate.

“I read the National Review, listened to Rush Limbaugh, volunteered for Rudy Giuliani,” said Martin, 30, who is in his third year at St. John’s University Law School. “Any sense of loyalty I had for the party has eroded in the last eight years. I don’t feel like I owe the party anything.”

Christian was a die-hard supporter of Hillary Clinton. But lately, she’s been clocking most of her time as a very visible member of DemocratsforMcCain.com. When the Democratic National Committee supported Barack Obama, the 65-year-old McCain convert very publicly aired her frustration. The scene was captured on video, and live on YouTube, where it’s gotten more than a million and a half views.

“I’m part of the core base of the Democratic Party, “ said Christian. “I fought very hard for Hillary. I was extremely disappointed at the stealing of the nomination from her. I realized it had become very corrupt, the Democratic Party.”

Two years ago, Martin founded Republicans for Obama, a grassroots organization that now boasts 2,500 registered Republicans from all across the country. Starting the group has raised his profile, but also had some negative consequences.

“Since I started, I’ve gotten some hate mail,” said Martin. “It’s always full of grammatical errors.”

With their heightened profiles, both Martin and Christian have become more careful about how they present themselves in public. Martin kept his black windbreaker free of campaign buttons on Election Day, but Christian entered the polling place with her preferences on her lapels: a “Hillary” brooch on one side and a “McCain” brooch on the other. Her navy blue blazer sported “Democrats for McCain” and “Nobama” buttons.

Neither Martin nor Christian plan on changing their party affiliations. Still, they are both disillusioned about the direction of the country and their Parties.

“My priority is helping the Republican Party back on its feet,” said Martin of his hopes for the conservative movement. But his work for Obama fits in with that view, he added. “I’m not under some illusion that he’s conservative. But I don’t want to see a Republican Congress that will hijack Obama’s efforts to get the country on track.”

Although Christian is impressed with John McCain’s judgment and character, she is also aware of his divergence from her core issues, such as abortion.

“My vote is primarily a protest vote against the Democratic Party,” she said. “Against a party that has told 18 million of us, the ones who voted for Hillary, that there’s no place for us.”

Chants rang through the school courtyard as the students formed a circle for one last practice before heading out to the streets of Harlem Tuesday.

“G-O-T-V! Get out the vote! G-O-T-V! Get out the vote!”

The students at the Harlem Prep Democracy Charter School – not one older than 14 – were ready for action on Election Day. They filed out of the playground single file to head to a nearby subway station to pass out leaflets.

Democrats and Republicans mounted an all-out effort to get voters to the polls across the nation Tuesday in the final push of a billion-dollar campaign that reached all the way into the Harlem schoolyard.

New Voters Hit The Streets

At the Obama campaign office on Frederick Douglass Boulevard, Jennifer Moore said this was her third election and the first time she has ever volunteered. She spent the morning signing in other volunteers and sending them out to the neighborhood’s busiest intersections.

“We have people on the streets passing out literature and people at different phone bank locations in Harlem,” said Moore, 27. “I wanted to make sure that I could go to sleep at night knowing that I did everything I could to ensure that Obama won.”

The wave of young volunteers brought more than a rush of energy to the Obama effort — it also brought new ideas that went beyond the traditional phone banks and leafleting. For young voters on Tuesday, blogging, texting and social networks were just as important as a fleet of busses.

“I started getting e-mails and that’s when I got involved,” said Moore, a small-framed woman with short black hair, dressed in an Obama T-shirt.

“I can contribute and it really matters. It’s easy too with Facebook and texting because it’s already part of your daily routine,” she said.

Young Republicans Hold Their Own

First time voters did not play as big a role in the Republican vote in New York this year, but that doesn’t mean young Republicans were sitting on the sidelines. The New York Young Republican Club had an increase from 12 members in 2001 to 250 members this year, including a small group of first-time voters, in particular newly naturalized citizens.

But in a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans by nearly six-to-one, Republican groups didn’t have as much money to spend. And their get-out-the-vote efforts tended toward the more traditional phone banking and literature blitzes.

“We have our own blog, but mostly we contribute on other people’s blogs,” said Lynn Krogn, 27, the club president. “We’re active, but we’re not as active as we want to be.

“We know that we are dealing with the bluest of the blue states here but we still have at least 100 people today handing out literature on the street,” Krogn said at a hall on West 51st Street where she was getting ready for an election-night party. “It is not just about the national effort though. It is about the local (races) too and we are not just going to hand it over to the Democrats carte-blanche.”

On Staten Island, the borough with the most Republicans, the Richmond County Young Republicans focused on the Assembly campaign of Joe Cammarata and the Senate campaigns of Andy Lanza and Lou Tobacco.

“We (are) doing some door-to-door campaigning, where we will actively knock on people’s doors and talk about our candidates,” said Anthony Reinhart, a member of the club. “We almost always find people receptive to this kind of grassroots campaigning.”

Young Democrats on the Rise

College Dems of New York saw an increase from 700 members last year to 1,000 members this year and registered 11,000 new voters on college campuses in New York, according to club president Dan Levin, 21.

“Obama has so had so much more success in generating the youth vote,” he said. “You don’t hear or see that many students for McCain doing get out the vote efforts in New York or even online.”

– With Sophia Tewa

Despite Harlem Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel’s recent troubles, Craig Schley found himself running as an underdog with no chance of toppling the 38-year incumbent.

To combat his huge money and volunteer disadvantages, Schley used grassroots techniques to try to compete. Schley appeared almost daily at senior centers, bookstores and churches to introduce his platform. And on Election Day he canvassed the district.

“You are not going to get as grassroots as this,” Schley said. “It is one man trying to cover a huge district in a small period of time.”

Uphill Battle

From the beginning, Schley’s candidacy against Rangel under the slate Voices of the Everyday People for Change (VOTE People) has been an uphill battle. Schley’s campaign, with just 30 volunteers, has raised about $13,000, while the watchdog Web site opensecrets.org reported that Rangel has collected $4.82 million, or 323 times the money Schley has raised, for this election cycle.

“I am challenging Charles Rangel and with your support we can win,” the 45-year-old Schley yelled out of a bullhorn from a mini-SUV to residents on the streets of East Harlem on Election Day. “You do not have to vote for Rangel. You have a choice for president and Congress.”

Rangel, 78, has represented the 15th Congressional District since he defeated Adam Clayton Powell Jr. in 1970, making him the fourth longest serving Democratic member of the House. The district, which has nearly 400,000 registered voters, stretches from the Upper West Side to Washington Heights/Inwood, Rikers Island, and includes a part of northwestern Queens and the Bronx.

Rangel, chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, is under scrutiny by the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct for failing to report taxable income from a villa he owns in the Dominican Republic and for leasing four rent-stabilized apartments in Manhattan. Still, some of Rangel’s constituents, like East Harlem resident Phil Jones, 49, are not concerned.

“Rangel has done nothing to me,” Jones said. “If the man got over, he got over. What he does is his personal business.”

Former Firefighter

Schley, who was born in Philadelphia, came to Harlem in the 1990s. He is a former firefighter and electrician who paid his way through New York University with money he earned as a fashion model for Wilhelmina. He was 39 when he received a bachelor’s degree in political science. After graduation, he interned for Rangel and worked as an assistant clerk for New York State Supreme Court Judge Faviola Soto.

“You got my vote brother!” said John Saunders, 41, who has been living in East Harlem for 15 years, after speaking to Schley at the corner of East 102 Street and Park Avenue. “Rangel has been in office for so long that we need a change. People who are in office so long, they forget about their constituents.”

On top of all the things going against him, Schley heard complaints about voting machines in the district not working. At noon on Election Day, he returned to the polling site where he voted to address problems. He asked his press secretary to send out a complaint to the New York State Board of Elections about the situation in many polling locations in Harlem.

“Right here in our backyard, you have machines breaking down,” Schley said. “People who want to vote for me are calling me to let me know.”

And making matters worse for Schley is a voter like East Harlem resident Tiffany Jackson, 57, who said she voted for all Democrats without knowing much about the candidates running other than Sen. Barack Obama.

“I don’t know much about the local elections,” Jackson said. “I know Charles Rangel, but I didn’t know about his opponent.”