For many of us, casting a ballot in the primary election was a routine task – a simple way to fulfill our civic obligation. But for one group of Fort Wayne residents, it was a first-ever opportunity to have a voice in selecting elected representatives.
Minn Myint Nan Tin, director of the Burmese Advocacy Center, joined a group of about two dozen new American citizens exercising their right to vote for the first time.
“Due to 26 years of totalitarian rule in Burma, the majority of Burmese immigrants never had a chance to choose the government officer of their own,” she shared in an email. “Coming from a country that did not practice the election process, and for the people who struggle to restore democracy in native country, this is the process that (they) would not want to miss out (on).”
The Burmese Advocacy Center assisted residents in registering earlier this year. Kyaw That, a member of the group, registered months earlier but didn’t receive a confirmation letter. When he joined the group at the Rousseau Centre for early voting last Saturday, he learned he was qualified and happily cast his first vote. Another resident, May Than Shein, was recently hospitalized for pneumonia but didn’t want to miss her chance to vote, Nan Tin said. (Courtesy of journalgazette.net)
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