1009 new citizens, 1009 new votes at stake

By Timothy Pratt (contact)

Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2007 | 7:03 a.m.

It seems like it would be difficult to feel like an individual amid 1,009 people doing exactly what you're doing.

But Jose Alberto Rosales Aguayo, a framer from Mexico waiting in line Monday morning to be sworn in as a U.S. citizen, was looking forward to registering to vote - and having his voice count.

It's a bit of a cliche, the voice counting. But for many Monday at the largest citizenship ceremony in Las Vegas history at Cashman Theater, the idea was real.

"I want my questions, my words to matter," Rosales Aguayo said.

That's why he was going to sign up to vote as soon as the two-hour ceremony ended. The ceremony included a video set to Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the U.S.A." - a tune made historical after 9/11 - and a speech by Alfonso Aguilar, the top man at the Citizenship and Immigration Services.

The occasion was Constitution Day, the 220th anniversary of the document's signing.

But it also was a show of the passion in these immigrants-cum-Americans when it comes to voting, politics, the two main parties and the upcoming presidential election , as well as a look at how the two parties seek to mine the vein of new voters they see in freshly sworn-in citizens.

That vein can only grow: 1,444 people in the Las Vegas Valley applied for citizenship in July, more than twice the 610 who did so in October, the beginning of the federal fiscal year.

About 50 people behind Rosales Aguayo in line stood Ahmed Elkhatib, a 32-year-old financial analyst who has lived a third of his life in the U.S.

Elkhatib, from Egypt, is no stranger to politics. And understandably, his vision of politics centers in part on foreign policy.

"One of the first things I want to do is register to vote," he said. "I want America to be in good graces with the world again."

He noted that a decade in the U.S. has burst a balloon or two when it comes to politics in this country, especially after the vote controversy in the 2000 Bush-Gore election.

"I felt so disappointed," he recalled. "I thought that every vote counted, and then it was like, even in the First World this stuff happens."

Still, he added, "Nothing is perfect ... Now I'm going to put my voice in."

Elkhatib was fasting for Ramadam. As a Muslim, he said , he has a vested interest in helping choose a president in 2008 who can help improve relations between Washington and the Middle East. He thinks that will likely be a Democrat.

Andres Ramirez, in charge of outreach for the state Democratic Party, says up to 82 percent of new citizens have been registering as Democrats since his party began sending staffers to the twice-monthly citizenship ceremonies in June.

Both parties register new citizens at the events and are allowed only to help people fill out forms, not choose a party.

Ramirez said his staffers registered 118 people Monday at Cashman - 79 Democrats, 14 Republicans and 25 nonpartisans or voters with other parties.

He thinks the trend toward Democrats might be in part because of immigration's place in the headlines, what with the lack of an immigration bill in Congress and raids on workplaces.

But Maxine Clark, a Republican who has been registering new citizens for nearly 15 years, thinks the Democratic figures are inflated.

She looked at her own stats for this summer: 354 Republicans, 419 Democrats and 250 nonpartisans.

"I think they're exaggerating," she said.

Over the years, Clark has had thousands of conversations with new citizens in four languages. She thinks many are enthusiastic about political participation, but lack information about the two parties and how elections work.

"They don't understand the parties or what they stand for," she said.

She has seen people register as Democrats "because they think that's what you do in a democracy," or as Independent Americans, a Nevada party, "because they think it means 'I'm an American, I'm independent.' "

"If they ask me, 'Which party?' I say, 'I can't tell you,' but I explain that if you want to, you can put nonpartisan until you decide," Clark said.

Many, though, come to this country to escape violence or oppression linked to politics. That might leave a bad taste in their mouths when it comes to voting and elections.

Danijela Golub, a 21-year-old Serbian nursing student who came to Las Vegas when she was 10, said she found it difficult to get interested in politics after her family came here as refugees in the wake of the chaos that fractured the former Yugoslavia.

At the same time, she said, "I love this country ... just don't want anything bad to happen here - like 9/11."

Lorena Guzman, a 45-year-old who left El Salvador 13 years ago, has her own bad memories linking politics and violence.

"I never voted " in El Salvador, she said. "It was complicated, kind of dangerous."

But now she felt galvanized, a Christian woman against abortion who looked forward to choosing her presidential candidate with a moral compass that led her to the Republican Party.

"One vote," she said, "can win an election."