SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) — It’s Election Day in Syracuse, and voters are coming out to cast their ballots at polling sites like the Hazard Branch Library. Among them is Irish immigrant Ellen Stack, who has been voting in America for more than six decades.
“I came from Ireland in 1967. I feel it’s my civic duty to vote,” Stack said.
That sense of civic duty runs deep for many Central New Yorkers, including Navy veteran Joe McCarthy, who hasn’t missed an election in more than 50 years.
“That’s a right, a privilege and, more importantly, a responsibility,” McCarthy said. “Everybody should vote. If they don’t vote, then they really have no right to complain — and they shouldn’t complain, because America is the greatest country in the world.”
Other voters, like Kevin Cooper, agreed with McCarthy’s sentiment.
“You don’t really have the right to complain if you don’t vote — and I’m willing to complain if I don’t like something,” Cooper said.
This year, McCarthy said he broke away from his longtime party affiliation because of concerns about the current federal administration.
“I voted primarily for the same party for 50-plus years, but I recently had to change since our current president is not so presidential,” he said.
For Stack, character and policy matter more than party.
“I vote for the person I feel is the best candidate,” she said.
Polls at the Hazard Branch Library close at 9 p.m., with results expected later tonight.