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Many
Colorado Iraqis long to vote but can't afford travel
to U.S. polls.
The closest polls to Colorado are in Chicago and the
Los Angeles area, each roughly 1,000 miles away. And
voters had to travel twice: to register one week and
to vote the next. Other polling places are in
Detroit, Washington, D.C., and Nashville, Tenn.
Only 25,946 Iraqis have registered to vote in the
United States. An estimated 240,000 were eligible.
So when polls open for an election that thousands of
Iraqis and Americans died to make happen, most
Iraqi-Americans won't be there.
"It's a big disappointment for us," said Abdul
Jabari, a Kurdish-American who figured the cost to
vote at $2,000 for himself and his wife.
Jabari counted three people he knows who are voting,
and 60 to 70 others "who can't go and would, if it
was within driving distance."
Many Iraqis in Colorado are Kurds, a group who
suffered chemical attacks by Saddam Hussein and who
have fared well since the U.S.-enforced no-fly zones
gave them virtual autonomy a dozen years ago. The
Kurds are particularly interested in voting.
Handrin Ismail, a 34-year-old gas station manager
from Thornton with a wife and an 18-month-old, is
one of them. "It's difficult for us, not just for
me, but for all the Kurdish people in Colorado," he
said. "Every single one would love to vote."
Instead, he estimated that only 2 percent to 3
percent of the Kurdish Iraqis in this state will
make it to the polls.
Bakhtiar Gozeh of Colorado Springs went so far as to
brainstorm with a dozen of his Iraqi friends about
renting a car and driving to the polling place in
Nashville. "But everyone has to work," he said.
Gozeh, a Kurd who has been in the United States
eight years, is very hopeful about the election even
if he can't participate. "I think it will be a good
option for the Iraqi people," he said.
"I don't care who will be winning," he added. "I
want to see the process."
Even for those who are making the trip, it's tough.
Ahmad Diyazee of Denver left last Friday in a car
with four other voters on a mad dash to Los Angeles
to register.
"We drove all night," he said. "We had three days to
go there, register and come back!"
Diyazee is flying back to California this weekend on
a convoluted route from Denver through Seattle to
San Diego, because it was the cheapest. He'll be
staying with friends in San Diego and driving to the
polling site in Orange County, south of Los Angeles.
His wife won't be able to vote because she's staying
home with their four children.
Diyazee's friends, Wahab and Shereen Murad, are both
voting but traveling on different days so one of
them will be home with the children, Shereen said.
http://www.rockymountainnews.com
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