Life in El Barrio, the traditional Puerto Rican neighborhood of New York, took place this Tuesday with businesses open and almost empty like their streets, unlike polling centers where the flow of voters did not stop, a large number of them ‘boricuas’ who, when casting their vote, did not forget the insult to their country that a Republican supporter made at a rally last October 27.

“That offended me, that’s not said,” Juan, 67, told EFE, accompanied by his brother William, 68, who, in a wheelchair and having trouble speaking, moved his head giving him the reason. (they referred to the qualifier of Puerto Rico as a “floating garbage island” pronounced by a comic ‘headline’ at a Trump rally in New York).

Both were born in Puerto Rico and today voted for the Democratic presidential candidate, Kamala Harris, like many other residents of El Barrio, where no surprises are expected with the results, at least there.

However, voters interviewed by EFE expressed their concern about the country’s overall results in the face of an electoral race against Republican Donald Trump, which has been characterized by its very narrow margins.

Annoyance for comments

These were the second elections as a citizen for the Mexican Maricruz Eduardo, who said at the exit of the polling station that she supported Harris because she believes in the power of women. “I am one of them,” she said, “by raising four children alone in New York, with whom she emigrated only with a Mexican peso “that they gave me when she was going to come.”

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Eduardo said she was upset with Trump’s comments against immigrants because, he recalled, she worked hard to get her children ahead as a seamstress and then as a caregiver at home. “I want women to win!” he said.

The presidential elections in centers visited by EFE in the Bronx and Harlem have attracted a large number of people, who alone or accompanied by relatives, in wheelchairs or with canes, came early to cast their vote.

“Many people have come, even people who had not voted before” although they are registered to vote, commented a worker from El Bronx.

In El Barrio it was no different. Congressman Adriano Espaillat also voted there, who attended with a delegation of Dominican legislators whom he invited to observe the process in the district he represents and that includes Harlem.

“I was surprised by the level of voting today because many already voted early. Hispanics have gone out to vote in large numbers,” he said, and assured that at the end of the election “there will be surprises.”

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He expressed “optimistic” that in the seven ‘hinge’ states, which are key to the results, they end up leaning towards Harris.

Passions and divisions

Trump’s candidacy provokes passions among his followers and has divided even families, a community activist from Hispanic Harlem told EFE, who was outraged by the comments of the Republican comedian who called Puerto Rico an “garbage island” and who cannot understand “how a Puerto Rican can vote for Trump.

Margarita even spoke about Trump and the Republicans’ position of opposing abortion by recalling that she had to undergo one because her five-month-old fetus had died. “I had access to health services,” which not many women have in states where they have passed very restrictive anti-abortion laws that have already cost the lives of some women, she says.

While in Midtown, the head of a polling center, Michael Bushman, explained that unlike other years, today there have been fewer queues, since in the nine days of early voting “many people came.”

New York began allowing early voting in 2019.

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“Before early voting existed, queues formed that went around the block, but since people have nine days to vote in advance, there are no queues. Today, there is a constant but fluid movement. Voters don’t have to wait an hour or two,” says Bushman.

In total, 1,089,328 residents of the city voted in advance, a number slightly lower than in the 2020 presidential elections, when more than 1.1 million people voted before election day.