Viergelyn Chery-Reed and Michelle Reed cast their vote at the Yawkey Boys and Girls Club of Roxbury on Tuesday morning. Their two young children, each clutching stuffed animals, stood beside them on the sidewalk as the sun beat down.
“We brought them here today to be a part of history,” said Reed, a 36-year-old cook. “They’re supposed to be in school right now, but we thought this took precedence.”
For Chery-Reed, a trauma psychotherapist, casting a ballot for a woman presidential candidate felt particularly significant. She said the election may be the most consequential yet for her family, who identify as queer, BIPOC and Caribbean-Indigenous.
The couple were among the thousands of Bostonians who cast their ballots Tuesday in a historic presidential election between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. Voters across Dorchester, Roxbury and Mattapan interviewed by The Scope said they were concerned about reproductive rights, international conflict, democracy and affordable housing.
Abortion and Women’s Rights Are Major Issues
For many, abortion and women’s rights were important issues that guided their vote.
Annette Scott, a 62-year-old retired ophthalmologic technician, walked with a limp to vote at Ward 13 in the Lilla G. Frederick Pilot Middle School. Despite knee injuries which have left her relying on a cane, she was determined to vote in the current presidential election. Scott also spoke about the importance of women’s health and abortion. She is unhappy that men in Congress and the Supreme Court control those issues.
“Women are dying,” she said. “Do you want us to go back to a time when women had to use coat hangers to have abortions?”
Like Scott, many voters discussed how women have overcome adversity to get to where they are today. Frances Brasfield, a 68-year-old unit coordinator at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and a Dorchester resident, said, “We’ve gone through a lot in order to vote — especially women, especially women of color. So many people that fought the fight for us are gone, so I want to carry on that legacy.”
Bob McCreary, 87 years old, had strong opinions about where the future stands for women if Trump wins.
“Women will not have any rights,” he said. “Women should be tired of old crusty white men controlling your bodies.”
International Conflict: Gaza, Ukraine
The ongoing wars in the Middle East and Ukraine were also at the forefront of voters’ minds. Michael Cardone, a 70-year-old scientist living in Savin Hill, said that the war in Ukraine should be a top priority for the future head of state.
The president should “have the right advisors, the right perspective, the inputs that will keep them open-minded,” Cardone said.
Meanwhile, Boston University student John Nagasawa said his pro-Palestinian stance on the war in Gaza led him to cast his ballot for Green party candidate Jill Stein.
“I hope that sends a message to both parties that I am pro-Gaza and am looking for better control of Israel’s policies. That was how I made my choice,” he said.
Nagasawa, who cast his ballot at the Joseph Lee School in Dorchester, also hopes to see reform on immigration policy and said that a feeling of civic duty also pushed him to vote for Stein.
Voting & Democracy
Numerous voters expressed excitement about the act of voting itself. Whether it was because of flashbacks to the 2016 “gut punch,” as 68-year-old Donna Asally called the last Trump victory, or a sense of pride and civic duty, voting itself was important for many.
Asally proudly cast her ballot at the Edward Everett Elementary School in Dorchester. Reproductive rights and the future of democracy were top of mind issues for the senior research administrator at Beth Israel Hospital. Despite feeling nervous about the results, she felt respect for the process.
She said that voters were “all ages, all colors, all religions. It’s like a little micro-democracy. It’s so beautiful.”
Vanessia Lynch-Tate is a 60-year-old who works as a coordinator for homeless outreach in Dorcester. She expressed concern about immigration, the economy and women’s rights. Lynch-Tate did not see the importance in voting when she was 18, but learned as she got older that her voice mattered.
“Being a woman and being Black, a lot of times I’ve been passed over. People don’t even hear me, even where I work,” Lynch-Tate said. “When I vote people actually are listening to me and I realized that and that’s why I vote every time.”
Lynch-Tate and Asally both donned the oval “I voted” stickers as they left the polling station.
At Ward 15’s polling station in Dorchester, 25-year-old Justin Gonzalez, an IT professional, also emphasized the importance of voting. For Gonzalez, participating in elections is a fundamental part of ensuring the voices of his community are heard.
“I always try to vote every time we have elections,” he said, adding that his decision to vote reflects a commitment to representing local interests.
To other voters like Michael Allara, democracy itself is on the ballot. Allara is a graduate student living in Dorchester who cast his ballot at Cristo Rey High School in Ward 13.
“I also think that making sure that we have sort of an understanding as a country that we have free and fair elections and the ability to go out and vote to support who you want to vote for is really key,” Allara said. “I think that faith and democracy is really gonna be a big issue on the ballot.”
Unity & the Future
Amid an increasingly polarized political landscape, Bostonians expressed hope that the future president will promote a message of unity, hope and resilience across the country.
Ashley Osinubi cast her ballot at the Higginson-Lewis K-8 School in Roxbury Tuesday morning. Wearing heart-shaped sunglasses and carrying her cat in a carrier on her back, she stressed the need for compassion despite political division.
“When you lift one, everyone gets lifted, and that’s what we need to understand as a society; we are all a part of one body,” the 41-year-old said.
Osinubi added that faith is a large part of her life, and it informs her perception of politics.
“I truly believe that it will all work out in the end if we just do what God has asked us to do and love one another,” she said.
Back at the Yawkey Boys and Girls Club of Roxbury, Chery-Reed and Reed’s children hinted at a budding awareness of their own potential to make a difference.
When asked if he would vote when he’s older, one of their children said, “I don’t know, probably … If I understand everything.”
Also contributing to this story were: Abigail Achmad, Alaa Al-Ramahi, Amandine Alexander, Julia Alvear, Mia Benaissa, Isabella Bernstein, Emily Boyle, Maeve Brackett, Liron Brunner, Danielle Campos Martel, Rita Chandler, John Chronopoulos, Sonel Cutler, Chloe Dougherty, Erin Hickey, Aoife Jeffries, Rachel Kalt, Saba Khundadze, Kyle Kucera, Analuz Kury, Sofia Lebowitz, Agata Lo Stimolo, Delaney Manna, Karol Mendoza, Josephine Meriot, Haley Rose Moore, Abigail Murphy, Emily O’Brien, Claire Ogden, Emily Pablo Saavedra, Yuexuan Pan, Audrey Scott, Juliette Piovoso, Olivia Pirch, Nicki Ribakoff, Shay Roberts, Autumn Sloboda, Emily Spatz, Anne Wang, Medina Yavuz, Gregory Zapata, Danni Zhang.
Photographers: Ava Bayat, Ella Bramwell, Ahaan Chaudhuri, Martina Chiara, Aki Gaythwaite, Genevieve Kopp, Joshua Longo, Maya Maroni, Faith Nguyen, Rebecca Pereira, Mitali Sarin, Emma Sullivan.
