Claudia Utley: Voting After Becoming A Citizen, Arkansas

Between December 2019 and January 2020 (just weeks before the pandemic), Smithsonian staff and their storytelling partners at the Peale, Baltimore, traveled to multiple states in the U.S. to ask residents of those states about voting experiences, the current state of American democracy, what issues brought them to the polls, how they made a difference in their communities, and what Americans' civic responsibilities were, among other complex questions.

Claudia Utley: I'm an immigrant. I had lived in the United States for a long time as an adult, as a green card holder, and had gone to the voting polls with my husband. So, I knew what the process was like, more or less.

(00:13) But after I became an immigrant, I was finally able to go myself, and I was already, well, I was in my late 40s when that happened. I walked into the voting poll here in Little Rock, and one of the poll volunteers took me by the elbow and started showing me around. And then he said, "Oh, you probably know the drill, ma'am." And I said, "No, actually, I don't really, because I just became a citizen, and this is my first time voting." And he beamed.

(00:36) And he was an African American, probably old enough to remember the Civil Rights Movement when he was not allowed to vote. And then maybe what it was like when he was given permission to vote. And so I think maybe he related just a little bit how an adult could vote.

(00:51) And then a couple of years later, I took our young daughter, who had just turned 18, to vote for the first time. And she was asked by a poll worker, "Is this your first time voting?" and she nodded. She was a little bit shy. And then the poll worker announced to the whole group, "Oh, we have a first-time voter here!" And, the whole room burst out into applause. That was neat.

Asset ID: 2023.02.02.a-b
Themes: Immigration, Voting, Citizenship, Civil Rights Movement, First-time Voting
Date recorded: December 4, 2019
Length of recording: 0:01:13
Related traveling exhibition: Voices and Votes: Democracy in America
Sponsor or affiliated organization: Arkansas Humanities Council, Little Rock
More information or related assets: https://arkansashumanitiescouncil.org/voices-votes-democracy-in-america/