Xochitl Flores, 12, checks her list of the registered voters she and her groups of volunteers need to remind to vote in Elmont, New York on Tuesday, November 8, 2016. (Views from Abroad/Gabriela Bhaskar)

Minority Teens Hit the Streets of Long Island to Get Voters to the Polls

It’s 5:30 on Election Night, and six teenagers are zigzagging through the dimly-lit streets of Elmont, Long Island. Huddled around a clipboard, using one of their cell phones for light, they’re trying to find their next target: a house with registered voters who need help getting to the polls.

The teens were part of a canvassing effort organized by Make The Road New York, a nonprofit group that works with immigrants. Teams began at 6 a.m. Tuesday, when polls opened in the city, and worked for the next 12 hours, ferrying voters to their polling places.

“Why didn’t you wear your glitter today?” called out Luisa Tanuri, one of the organizers, to Xochitl Flores, a pint-sized 12-year old volunteer.

“It’s hard to get rejected. She looks so cute,” adds Tanuri.

Flores bounced from house to house as the rest of the group helped her find the numbers on the street, which don’t follow numerical order.

Flores’ 18-year old brother, Etsio, a high school senior, watched his little sister in action.

“Right now, it’s very important because the next president can determine if there’s immigration reform,” he said. “For my family, immigration reform would impact if my parents get to stay here or get deported.”

Tanuri said that many of the teen volunteers are US citizens, but many of their parents are undocumented.

“A lot of them can’t vote. They participate in democracy in any way they can,” she said.

Luisa Tanuri (right) 28, Make the Road New York Youth Organizer bantering with her teen volunteers as they finish up their day of canvassing Elmont residents to vote on November 8, 2016. (Views from Abroad/Gabriela Bhaskar)

Daniel Altschuler, Make the Road New York’s Director of Civil Engagement and Research, explains that his organization seeks to “increase civic engagement with working class people of color, which for all too long has been ignored.”

“We prioritize to make their voices heard,” he adds.

Angel Vera (middle) and Julian Gomez (right), tenant orginazer, closing up the night’s activities in Elmont with Alejandra Sorto of Long Island Civic Engagement Table (Views from Abroad/Gabriela Bhaskar)

A large black van pulled up in front of a volunteer’s home. Twelve volunteers piled into the van, cold and exhausted. The group, including an 8-year old boy, his father and a Colombian woman in her 60s, make their way back to the Queens Make the Road New York office. Their job out on the streets was done. Now, over empanadas and plantains, they waited, anxiously, as the results started to pour in.