‘I Am an American; I Am a Voter Who Makes a Difference’

As events unfolded in Florida and Washington, D.C., over the past weeks, determining who would be president for the next four years, I maintained a dwindling hope that my new country, the United States of America, still has the best democratic voting system.

To foreign observers, U.S. presidential elections can be confusing. The length of the campaign, for example, is more akin to a marathon than a sprint. Americans put more focus on candidates’ personal lives than on real issues affecting real people.

Still, as a new citizen of this country, I was excited Nov. 7. I got up early to go to the polls to cast my ballot.

The voting place was a fairly new mobile home on one of the major highways in the Santa Clarita Valley. To my surprise, I counted only six other voters, all seniors and all Anglos. I was the only Latino. I had expected a greater number of Americans to be enthusiastic about electing someone to what I consider the most powerful office in the world.

It took me about six minutes to vote. I read the ballot line by line, making sure that I was punching the correct space. Once I finished, I gave the ballot to the lady at the desk, and she said to me, “Congratulations. You voted.” She gave me a little sticker that read, “I voted, have you?”

It was an incredible feeling. I said to myself, “I am an American; I am a voter who makes a difference.”

I looked forward to coming home from my office that evening to watch the news, to see the winner on national TV delivering his speech of acceptance to the American people. But of course that did not happen.

Worse, the TV networks kept on giving mixed information. I was confused and disappointed. I could not believe what was going on.

“This is insane,” I thought. “This type of fiasco can happen, but not in America.”

I’ve seen on television how presidential elections in other countries can turn violent, with innocent people getting hurt. Thank God it didn’t happen here.

I immigrated to the United States from El Salvador in 1985. Like many fellow immigrants, I was illegal for a number of years. I became a legal resident during the amnesty. I applied for citizenship immediately after I became eligible.

I waited for two long years. Four years ago, I became a U.S. citizen. And now, here I am, part of this historical moment.

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Neither Texas Gov. George Bush nor Vice President Al Gore could resist political maneuvering to take the prize. Giving up seemed too big a price to pay for principle.

I wished that one of these two men had done something to make me believe otherwise. They must have thought that it was worth sacrificing the values of respect and fair play to gain the power necessary to promote one’s larger ideals.

I hope that the United States, the most technologically advanced nation on earth, can develop a simple and clear voting system to avoid another fiasco in close elections like this one. Why do we still have the Electoral College? We would need a Constitutional amendment to change this system, but I think it should be changed in favor of direct popular election.

I maintain hope that something good will come of all this, perhaps the elimination of the Electoral College. And I hope that now the American people will show the rest of the world that we are united, that we are a nation with defined differences but respect for each other and that we are one nation, under God, with justice for all.

God bless America.