IRVINE “”mdash; Hours before sunrise Friday morning, four Iraqi
immigrants from Arizona parked just outside the locked gate at the
El Toro Naval Base near Irvine to wait for their chance to
vote.
Standing outside their cars at 5 a.m., the group had left
Phoenix around midnight to make sure they were among the first in
line when the polls opened at 7 a.m. Some in the group smoked
cigarettes to stay comfortable and talked to three early morning
news agencies about why they had traveled so far to vote.
“This is our choice and the first chance for us to vote
for our government after 40 years,” said 38-year-old Abdul Al
Jazairi, who was in the car. “We’re coming here to
support our country and build our country as well.”
This is not the first trip Jazairi made from Phoenix to Irvine.
A week earlier, he and around 3,900 other Iraqis drove from several
nearby states to register.
Many of those same Iraqis are retuning this weekend, driving
long distances because the El Toro Naval Base is the only polling
station for out-of-country voters on the West Coast.
Friday was the first of three days for out-of-country voting. In
Iraq, voters only went to the polls Sunday. Voting also occurred in
14 countries outside of Iraq such as Syria and Sweden, and there
were five polling stations in the United States, including
Nashville, Detroit, Chicago, Washington D.C. and Irvine.
Sami Hassan, who has lived in the United States for five years,
drove roughly 1,000 miles to come to Southern California from
Portland, Ore. to vote.
“All my life dreaming …” Hassan said, his voice
trailing off as he rushed to the polls.
Others, like Osman Omer and his wife Zehra Muhammed, came from
San Diego and other places inside California, while some traveled
even longer distances from Seattle and Salt Lake City.
Talal and Nikran Ibrahim, workers at the polling station, are
from Mission Viejo in California and were lucky to have a polling
place close to home. Shortly after 7 a.m. they were two of the
first to cast their votes. Applause exploded as Nikran Ibrahim
dropped her completed ballot into the box ““ something poll
workers did to congratulate many voters with finished ballots.
“I am 52 years old and this is my first time
voting,” Talal Ibrahim said. “This is the first step
for a stable government in Iraq.”
Talal Ibrahim said he came from Baghdad in 1980 because of the
war Iraq started in Iran. He now hopes that a new government can
provide security and stability for Iraq so that his children may
have the opportunity to return to his homeland.
“The problem can’t be solved without a stable
government, and a stable government has to be an elected
government,” he said.