First Time Colorado Voters Share Ambition To Have Their Voices Heard
CENTENNIAL, Colo. (CBS4) - The polling was getting busy in the afternoon at the Smoky Hill Library on Monday. From time to time a poll worker would call out, "First time voter!" and cheers would go up.
Among them, Hyde Hamed, an immigrant from Nigeria who took the oath of citizenship only Friday.
"I'm excited to be a part of it," he told CBS4. As to the political division in his new country, "Well.. politics is always like that," he explained.
Hamed works at a car auction house. His wife Elisha Whitehead, a nurse, sat waiting outside as he cast his ballot. She had already voted.
"It was a great feeling for him to do it so quickly because he had been waiting for his naturalization ceremony, he'd been waiting for months."
It took six years to get through the process. She noted many Americans may not grasp the importance of voting.
"The sheer fact that we are pushing people to vote and to come out and come and to have campaigns about voting goes to show you that we generally take it for granted."
Assane Sogue was also there to vote. Also an immigrant, it was not his first time, but he understood the gravity. He immigrated to the United States as a teenager after his family was forced out of Mauritania.
"They sent soldiers to our house'" he recounted. "They burned clothes, they burned everything. Pictures of us as kids." His parents were fortunate to have a relative in Aurora and he grew up in the U.S.
"I think some people do, but a lot of people don't take it for as special as it is," he said.
At the polls for the first time were 18-year-old McKenna Simler and her half sister 25-year-old Courtney Shomshor.
"I was extremely looking forward to this," said McKenna.
She had done research to figure out how to vote, but in her home there had not been a lot of political discussion, because things got uncomfortable.
"Most of the family is still undeclared, but there's still a lot of fighting so we kind of just don't talk about it," she said.
Courtney was feeling new interest in voting because her life has changed since the last presidential election. She now has a 3-year-old son.
"I definitely see a different world through their eyes," she said, explaining that her son is of mixed ethnicity. "I just never really cared versus now. I have a son. I see this world, and I definitely don't want him to be my age and kind of dealing with the stuff we're dealing with. So I definitely want to be part of the change."
Polls will be open until 7 p.m. Tuesday and eligible voters can still register to vote day of.