Women's vote goes both ways

In one week, residents of St. Petersburg’s Midtown neighborhood will join people all across the nation and vote in what has become this country’s most historic election. However, some of these Midtown residents supported Hillary Clinton and must now decide who to give their vote to now that she has withdrawn from this election. Presidential candidate John McCain’s selection of Sarah Palin, the female governor from Alaska, has not attracted women in Midtown to vote for him. An unofficial survey of residents of Midtown, a predominantly black neighborhood in St. Petersburg, reveals no women voters supporting McCain because of Palin’s presence on the ballot. Urban League volunteer worker and registered independent Edvyonne Hopkins said, “I will not vote based solely on a candidate’s sex and race.”
People are voting on issues, not whether one candidate is black or the other is a woman. According to most of the Midtown residents interviewed, “The main problems this country faces deals with either the economy or the war.” Hopkins, an Urban League volunteer worker and registered independent, stated that “she will vote for Obama because he (Obama) is against the war.”
According to Urban League of St. Petersburg director Ludell Hill, “Many Midtown residents will probably vote for Obama because they feel he (Obama) is the best candidate to get more jobs for people.”
Many residents in Midtown, whether registered or not, seem to vote more on the basis of what’s best for this country as opposed to the sex or race of the candidates running and their running mates. Midtown resident and unregistered voter Mayre Garcia said that “she would vote for John McCain because she feels that the society would take things too far out of context and riots could happen if Obama were to be elected.”
Unregistered Midtown resident and mother of three young children Stephanie Six said, “If I were to vote, I’d vote for Obama because he is looking out for the broker people whereas McCain wants women to make less money.”
However, husband and unregistered voter Steven Six said, “I would probably vote for Obama because he believes in more of the same things that (Hillary) Clinton believed in.”
Unfortunately, however, most of the Midtown residents I spoke to were either unregistered or choosing not to vote for a variety of reasons. Hopkins feels that residents choose not to vote because they are either “uneducated or don’t have the time to make an educated decision.” She (Hopkins) was careful to say, however, that “a majority of voters are educated” and that “those with a college education are more likely to vote than those without a college education.”
It can be said that the sex of the candidate, in this case Palin on McCain’s ballot, does not sway the voters in St. Petersburg’s Midtown neighborhood, even those voters who had previously supported (Hillary) Clinton, as much as the issues that particular candidate supports and what may happen to our country in the years to come if that particular candidate were to be elected into office.

NOTE: Stephanie and Steven Six and Mayre Garcia were interviewed with Director Ludell Hill present at the Urban League of St. Petersburg office.