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Voter Roundtable: New U.S. Citizens Share Their Election Plans

A new U.S. citizen sits in a vehicle while being sworn in by an immigration service officer at a drive-in naturalization ceremony amid the COVID-19 pandemic on July 29, 2020 in Santa Ana, California. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)
A new U.S. citizen sits in a vehicle while being sworn in by an immigration service officer at a drive-in naturalization ceremony amid the COVID-19 pandemic on July 29, 2020 in Santa Ana, California. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

In this week’s voter roundtable, we talk with newly naturalized U.S. citizens. How do they feel as they prepare to vote for president for the first time?   

Guests

Ahmed Al-Zubaidi, community liaison for the Newcomer program in the Beaverton School District. Biden supporter.

Fabiola Landeros, community organizer at El Centro de Igualdad y Derechos in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Biden supporter.

Violeta Cruz Perez, real estate agent from Tampa, Florida. Originally from Cuba.

Vadym Ostrovsky, sales manager. Originally from Ukraine.

From The Reading List

OPB: “ Newly Naturalized Citizens Prepare To Cast Votes In Oregon’s 2020 Primary” — “As the 2020 primaries approach, many newly naturalized citizens in Oregon will be casting their votes in an American election for the first time.”

Miami Herald: “ Biden is struggling to win Miami Latinos, new poll finds. Will it cost him Florida?” — “Four years after getting trounced in Miami-Dade County by Hillary Clinton, President Donald Trump has increased his odds of victory in his must-win home state on Nov. 3 by improving his standing in Florida’s most populous county, according to a poll by Bendixen & Amandi International and the Miami Herald.”

WBUR: “ ‘A Naturalization Crisis’: 10,000 Would-Be Voters In Mass. Might Miss Out In November” — “The federal agency in charge of naturalizing new U.S. citizens is in turmoil, with furloughs, budget shortfalls and paralyzing backlogs.”

FiveThirtyEight: “ New U.S. Citizens Were One Of The Fastest-Growing Voting Blocs. But Not This Year.” — “On a Wednesday morning in late February, Annie Johnson Benifield was already through the doors of the M.O. Campbell Education Center, in Houston by 5:30 a.m.”

Pew Research Center: “ Naturalized Citizens Make Up Record One-in-Ten U.S. Eligible Voters in 2020” — “More than 23 million U.S. immigrants will be eligible to vote in the 2020 presidential election, making up roughly 10% of the nation’s overall electorate – both record highs, according to Pew Research Center estimates based on Census Bureau data.”

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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