Bulgarian students at Harvard: Voting truly matters

In this parliamentary election, Bulgarians living in the USA had the opportunity to cast their ballots in a significantly smaller number of polling stations - only 24 across the entire territory of the United States.

Observations from previous elections show that with around 50 polling stations, between 10,000 and 12,000 Bulgarians vote there. The largest number of stations - five in total - was in the state of Illinois, as the Bulgarian community in Chicago is the largest. What the final data on voter turnout will be now, when Bulgarians in 36 states had no polling station at all and in some places have had to travel between 5 and 7 hours to vote, remains to be seen.

Nadya Ulman, Boston: Polling stations in the USA are 60% fewer

“After a problem with ballot processing in Boston around 11:30 a.m., despite the prompt response of the Boston election commission team and communication with the Central Election Commission, after 1:30 p.m. the voting machine at the Boston polling station stopped working completely. The problem appears to be related to the paper roll used by the machine,” Nadya Ulman told Radio Bulgaria. She also sent two video recordings of Bulgarian students at Harvard University in the state of Massachusetts who voted in New England:

“I vote because I grew up in Bulgaria - it is my country, and the fact that I am a student in the United States does not change that. I vote because I care about the future of my family, my loved ones, and the future of my peers who are currently students in Bulgaria. And because voting truly matters. At the same time, the reduction of polling stations in the United States affects a great many Bulgarians. I am very lucky that it did not affect me and that I can be here today, but it undoubtedly affected many of my peers whom I know in the U.S.,” says Maria Georgieva.

A sense of civic responsibility and a vision for a dignified future also motivated Todor Malchev to take the time to exercise his civic right:

“It is extremely important for me to vote, even outside Bulgaria, because I grew up in Bulgaria,” shares the student Todor Malchev. “I have spent 21 years in Bulgaria and have grown up seeing how low voter turnout has allowed corruption and many other unethical practices to become widespread in our country, unfortunately. For me, it is extremely important, even though I am thousands of kilometers away from my homeland, to exercise my right to vote. And not only that, but also to motivate many people around me, both here and in Bulgaria, to exercise their right to vote, to overcome low voter turnout, and finally see how we can change our future.”

From four polling stations in previous years, Bulgarians in Massachusetts now voted in two, despite 470 submitted applications - almost double the previous record of 282 in 2021, election volunteer Nadya Ullman analyzes.

On behalf of the Bulgarian community in the Boston area, she called on members of the new National Assembly to adopt urgent amendments to the electoral law. “The connection with the homeland must be proven through actions, and the right to vote is the strongest tool for this. Let us protect it and make it easier to exercise in the name of our shared future,” Nadezhda Ulman wrote in a message to Radio Bulgaria.

Editor: Elena Karkalanova