x
Breaking News
More () »

First time voters in Maine share their motivations

Bangor city councilor Angela Okafor will be voting in the presidential election for the first time.

MAINE, USA — People from all walks of life are going to vote in this presidential election.

According to the Pew Research Center, one in 10 eligible voters in the United States is an immigrant. Many of them will be voting in the presidential election for the first time, including one of the city councilors in Bangor.

Angela Okafor currently serves as one of the nine councilors for the City of Bangor.

Okafor is originally from Nigeria. She moved to Maine 13 years ago, and after a very long process and a lot of paperwork, Okafor and her family became U.S. citizens last year.

"Privileged! You know, to call myself an American," Okafor said.

Once she became a citizen, she wanted to bring new perspectives to the city and ran for a council spot at the Bangor City Hall.

"It was about time in Bangor that someone with a different view became part of what is going on," she said.

"I got naturalized last January 2019, and I decided to run for Bangor City council in 2019, so my first vote as an American citizen was a vote I cast for myself in an election that I won. That was November last year."

And like hundreds of thousands of Mainers, Angela Okafor has already cast her ballot, voting not just for president for the first time, but by absentee ballot for the first time, too.

Victoria Abramowska was born and raised in Germany. Abramowska was naturalized in a parking lot in Augusta this past summer along with several other new citizens.

"When I got the letter, I was over the moon," Abramowska said.

Now as a new U.S. citizen, she cast her very first ballot.

"It's so important because if you don't vote, you lose your right to complain," she said.

So far in Maine, almost 400,000 ballots have already been cast.

First-time voters at Husson University are feeling a mix of emotions. 

"There is a lot of pressure building up, a lot of tension and honestly a lot of division," Isaac Haskins said.

"It's super scary to vote in my first presidential election. I am not super keen on either of the candidates," Kassie Joler said.

"The person I'm voting for can really push it out there and make everything safer than it has been," Kier Amstrong said.

Oakley Fortin is the President of College Republicans at Husson University.

"When you look at the Republican party, the demographic is a little bit older, so I think it's very critical for us to understand if we want to have more of a voice and be more involved with the things that the party is doing," Oakley said.

Despite their background or party, all voters we talked to are determined to make sure their vote this year has an impact.

    

Before You Leave, Check This Out