First-Time Voters Cast Their Ballots and Hope for the Best

  • Deborah Chai, digital media production major: “I’m a woman of color so I thought it was important to vote for my interests and to make sure that I don’t let anything win that isn’t gonna support me and my staying in this country [as a naturalized citizen]. I think Hillary will win and that Trump will lose and I’ll laugh at the feat of a lot of white Republican men.” Photo by Tithee Patel

Many SUNY New Paltz students cast their votes for the first time in the 2016 presidential election. To capture their reactions to the campaigns, candidates and meaning of their vote, students from Prof. Lisa Phillips’ Feature Writing class and Prof. Rachel Somerstein’s Journalism 1 class went to local polling places. Here’s what voters had to say.