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25 March 2010
Iraqis Vote in Eight American Cities
Stories from the voting booths
Portland, Oregon — Iraqis felt the chill of late winter in Michigan rather than in Baghdad. They braved traffic jams in San Diego rather than Iraqi checkpoints. Many drove for more than 10 hours to cast their vote. At the end of the day, many of the 26,000 registered Iraqi voters were pleased to show the purple ink on their finger indicating that they had voted.
Their commitment to Iraq’s democratic future was clear.
Polling stations established by the Iraqi Elections Out of Country Voting Program stretched out across the United States, in eight cities from Washington to San Francisco. Their location reflected the concentrations of Iraqi residents in America; two were in the Detroit area and several in the sunny Southwest.
For three days, March 5–7, Iraqis flocked to polling stations.
Weary poll workers put in 12-hour days, but in interviews with America.gov, they spoke with satisfaction about how the election process went smoothly.
Aws Ali, a young Iraqi American and recent university graduate, worked at the polling station in Arlington, Virginia, just outside Washington. “People were excited at the chance to vote,” he told America.gov. “It was very exciting to see people from all religions and groups — Sunnis, Kurds, Shiites — all in one place, making their voices heard, and getting along at the same time.”
Ali added, “A lot of television cameras were there and many people were interviewed. They really appreciated that American news outlets, not just Arab news outlets, were interested in what they had to say.”
Among his other duties, Ali served as the liaison between the hotel and voters. The hotel staff “wanted to help out in any way they could,” he said. Many staff members learned how to greet voters in Arabic and helped them understand what documents they would need to show before voting.
Almost 4,000 kilometers away, Shak Hanish served as coordinator of the polling effort near San Diego. His impressions were similar to Ali’s: “People are trying to take part in forming the future of Iraq and its democratic process,” said Hanish, who is a professor of political science at a university in San Diego. Nearly 4,200 votes were cast in the San Diego area, making it one of the busiest polling stations in the United States.
Speaking of the voters at his polling station, Hanish told a San Diego radio station, “Their bodies are here physically, but they are thinking of their homeland. … They want their country to live in peace, have stability, democracy, freedom.”
Farther up the California coast, Raymond George, an Iraqi American, coordinated the voting in Pleasanton, near San Francisco. “People were very excited and very happy,” George said. About 1,400 voters came to this polling station, located in the county fairgrounds. Voters came from as far away as Portland, Oregon, nearly 1,000 kilometers away. A dozen Iraqis from Salt Lake City rented a bus and made the 10-hour drive to Pleasanton to make their voices heard.
George said there had been some campaigning by the major Iraqi parties, though it was very low-key, consisting mainly of get-out-the-vote efforts.
In San Diego, Hanish described two different newlywed couples coming to vote still dressed in their wedding clothes and accompanied by musicians. “That was a very happy moment,” he said. “I nearly cried.”
The East Bay News quoted one San Francisco-area Iraqi voter as saying, “[Voting] means that I am, in a very small way, contributing to the possibility that Iraqis will be able to shape our own future.”
In Arlington, Nabil al Bassam arrived at the polling station with his wife, their 4-year-old son and a number of friends. “I was so excited,” he told America.gov. He said it was like going to a party as he ran into Iraqi friends from the states of Massachusetts and South Carolina. He admitted that he had been uneasy when he had voted in Iraq five years ago. “This time,” he said, “I was proud and showing my [purple-stained] finger and encouraging others to vote.”
He added: “We would like to forget the past and turn the page. We want Iraq to be like other countries. We have everything to make a successful country. So, why not?”
