Democrat

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

A loft in the East Village filled with the chatter of 24 volunteers making calls for the Obama campaign the night before the election. Crammed around a long dining table, scattered on the couch and at the kitchen counter, some volunteers even grabbed space on the floor.

David Travis, a tall, wiry, soft-spoken man with salt and pepper hair hopped from person to person, getting everyone set up for the “GO-Bama Calling Party,” which started on election eve and continued well into the next night.

Loft-y Goals

The party, held in a spacious five-floor residential walkup on East 4th Street, was home to 30 volunteers last night. Armed with cell phones and call sheets, the volunteers shuffled in and out with their laptops, making calls all over the country, including to Florida, Montana, Virginia and Colorado.

“I think it’s important that we gather together and try to prove to ourselves, prove to the nation, prove to the people in power that have been so corrupted by that power that they can’t do what they have been doing with impunity,” said Travis, 35.

Travis got the word out about his party on my.barackobama.com, but also made calls to people he knows. He said that he had never met about a third of the people here and the rest were a combination of his and co-host Heather Raftery’s friends.

“It’s going pretty well, mostly messages,” said Petra Bebas, 24, an absentee Florida voter and first-time Obama volunteer who was calling Democrats in Florida to make sure they knew where and when to vote. “I’ve actually gotten a couple of people voting for Obama, so its very nice.”

Pitchaya Sudbanthad, who was busy calling voters in Virginia, found this event on Obama’s Web site. On average he said he can make about 20 calls in an hour. He attended a similar event on Sunday, where he made 100 calls to Virginia voters.

Chips and Pizza

“I feel very confident that his brand of change will be very good for this country,” Sudbanthad said.

The counter was filled with a snack spread of vegetables, hummus, chips, pretzels and candy, with pizza on the way. Across the room, Karen Zippler, a 35-year-old actor wearing an orange “Obama Mama” T-shirt stretched tightly over her baby bump, made calls while kneeling on the wooden floor.

“I just think it’s one of the most important elections of our lifetime,” said Zippler.

The event’s attendance was just below its 30-person capacity, and the volunteers rarely looked up from their computers and call sheets.

“If the Republicans do manage to get a victory out of this,” said Travis. “I will be rioting in the streets because I will be convinced that there has been foul play.”

The line at Public School 163 on the Upper West Side made its way outside the building, curved around a fence, continued to the street and finally made a U-turn back to the center of the schoolyard.

Joe Robins, a 31-year-old Obama campaign volunteer patrolled the line, talking to each one of the hundreds of voters to make sure they knew their election district.

“I’m nervous. I woke up a lot during the night,” Robins said.

Since last November,  he has been volunteering with the Broadway Democrats. “It’s a great year to be a Democrat and to be volunteering,” Robins said.

Time and Money

While many New Yorkers consider their civic duty to begin and end when they pull the lever on Election Day, thousands of Upper West Siders like Robins have worked overtime to make Barack Obama the 44th president of the United States.

The Upper West Side is the most Obama-friendly neighborhood in the country: As of Oct. 27, people residing west of Central Park from 59th Street to 110th Street had donated nearly $6.5 million to the Obama campaign. Three of the top 10 zip codes, in terms of donations to Obama’s campaign, are on the Upper West Side, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan research group.

“My guess is it’s the most active part of the city,” said Steve Max, 68, a manager at the Three Parks Independent Democrats and Broadway Democrats, which share a storefront on Broadway at 105th Street.

McCain Stiffed

While Upper West Siders have dug deep into their pockets for Obama, they haven’t for Republican presidential candidate John McCain. The center’s statistics show that residents have donated a comparatively meager $705,040 to his campaign.

Upper West Siders also have been generous with donating time to Obama’s campaign. On Election Day morning, the Three Parks storefront was buzzing with volunteers, though most of the work was done. The volunteers helped register nearly 7,000 new voters in the month and a half before Election Day,  Max said.

“People just want to be involved,” said Stephanie Lasher, 63, a volunteer with Community Free Democrats.  “New Yorkers are fired up.”

Polling places were packed across the city on Election Day. Many people voted. But many didn’t. Some had issues with paperwork. Some had issues with the candidates. Some had issues with the idea of government.

Some just had issues.

Kahn Kamel, 62, a security guard in the Bronx, wanted to vote but passed his citizenship exam only last week – too late to register. “Everywhere in the world people want to come to America, because of democracy,” he said.

Alejandro Gonzalez, 37, an undocumented immigrant who follows politics closely, said he hopes the next president will reform U.S. immigration laws.

‘Shouldn’t Be Hiding’

“I hope they can give us residency, so we could work legally. We shouldn’t be hiding for such low pay. People are abusive to us,” he said.

Namrata Sharma, a student who is not a citizen, wished she could have voted for Obama. “He seems like the person we need right now,” she said. “We need to improve how the international community looks at us right now, and he does that much better.”

However, many people who were eligible didn’t vote, either. Maria Diaz of Kingsbridge Heights, a life-long Democrat, said she could not bring herself to vote for Obama. And McCain is worse, she said.

For Xujun Eberlein, an author of several books on Chinese culture and history who emigrated from China in 1988 and is now a U.S. citizen, neither government nor race kept her from the polls. She said she’s simply indifferent to politics.

Aida Bevans, 47, said she doesn’t vote for religious reasons. “I’m one of Jehovah’s Witnesses,” she said. “We don’t vote for human governments.”