The temperature was -2 ° Celsius outside Barringer High School in Newark, New Jersey, a school converted into a polling place during Ecuador’s general elections.
Ecuadorians residing in that city waited a line of up to a block to enter and vote. The umbrellas, scarves and all clothing were necessary to face the intense cold and snow.
Virginia Flores, 64, says that around noon the line for the boys’ table would go around the school and that for the girls if it moved faster.
Even so, the Ecuadorians waited to vote. “Waiting with cold and snow, but I fulfilled my duty as a citizen. God bless us,” said Virginia, who has lived in the United States for 21 years.
She is an American and Ecuadorian citizen, has dual nationality.
“I have always voted and this time despite the time and how difficult it was to dig up my car because of the snow that had accumulated more from today’s storm, I went to vote because I want my Ecuador to be free from so much corruption, insecurity,” he says.
Dozens were observed on the outskirts of this school making the line that was longer also due to the biosecurity measures implemented to stop the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I waited about 35 minutes outside, once inside about 15 more minutes. The women’s tables were well organized, I don’t know the men’s because they went to the left wing of the school,” says Virginia.
Voting is not compulsory for residents abroad. More than 410,000 Ecuadorians are registered to vote outside the country.
31% of this diaspora lives in the United States and Canada. 62% of them are in Europe, Asia and Oceania and 7% in Latin America and Africa. (I)
Inside Barringer High School in Newark, New York. Photo: Courtesy
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