Video Transcript: Democracy In Action – St. Mary’s Center in Minoa
Early to bed and early to rise makes voters healthy, wealthy and wise. Specifically wise. Older citizens made up a huge chunk of the general voting populace from 10-noon at St. Mary’s Center. But these Minoans weren’t necessarily voting with their age demographic in mind.
SOT:
Our kids are watching this too. Our future generations are seeing a lot of negativity.
SOT:
We’re getting more youth involved, you gotta step aside…I can’t say we gotta step aside in the election
Well good thing for voters like Mitch, nobody is asking them to step aside. At the end of the day, everyone in Minoa today got to cast their own personal ballots for their own reasons.
SOT:
I’ve been involved in the right to life movement for over 50 years. Finally we got the Dobbs decision. The thing that hurts me most is if even our own New York State puts it in our constitution to make it legal.
SOT:
As a symbol of all of it: the Capitol. January 6th, was it? That’s what scares me.
But while all these folks have their own issues that matter to them, at the end of the day they implore everyone to think beyond themselves.
SOT:
We have to look at the big picture and really take everything into account with what’s happening in our world.
SOT:
Listen to both sides. Don’t listen to just Fox. Listen to CNN, listen to MN- CBC. Then you can make your decision
SOT:
We were looking for people who, as you just said, represent the community and the country. Not themselves or one small group that only wants this or that. We want the whole thing to be covered.
On Cam:
While it was mainly older voters here from 10-noon, everybody in New York has a chance to get their voice heard before polls close at 9 o’clock tonight.
Jish Sokolsky, NCC news.
MINOA, N.Y. (NCC News) — The early bird gets the worm, and the early voter gets to be first in line. Today, many older voters did not have to wait long to get their voices heard.
St. Mary’s Center in Minoa had a half-full parking lot from 10 a.m. to noon. The main demographic of constituents were return-voters, some of whom expected much more traffic at the polling place.
“We were pleasently surprised to find that there was nobody,” said Rick Heisler, a CNY resident for 74 years. “We just got right in, did our voting, and got out.”
According to the census, around 22% of residents in Minoa are 65 years old or older. Nationally, people of that demographic voted for Republicans over Democrats by 14% in the 2022 midterms. However, Minoa and the state of New York have voted blue in the past six presidential elections.
While the early voters got to skip the line, those who attended later got to partake in the St. Mary’s election night fish fry. Some even voted early with plans to come back to enjoy the food.
“I usually do fish fry on lentence,” said Mark Micale, a retiree from Minoa. “I’m kind of allergic to fish, but macaroni and cheese is my favorite.”