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'A Lot Of Stuff Will Change After This'

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By SHERRI ACKERMAN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 4, 2008

7:38 p.m. Cynthia and Elmo Forde couldn't wait to show up at Allen Temple AME Church in Ybor City and cast their votes for Barack Obama.

"We broke, our children ain't got jobs, we went through hell to pay for gas," said 51-year-old Cynthia, a pastor at the Zion Church of Holiness in the Tampa Park Plaza where her congregants struggle with their daily needs. "We're not in a recession, we're in a depression right now."

Her church used to cook up oxtail, fish and crab once a week for homeless and poor people. Now they can barely afford to provide the Sunday meal once a month.

"Our middle class is gone," Cynthia said. "Since Reagan, it's been the poor and the rich. The rich and the poor. America is broke."

The prospect of change and the historical significance of voting for America's first black president drew 57-year-old Edward Joseph to the polls for the first time in his life. The Tampa meat cutter employed at a local Winn-Dixie said he never imagined his vote could make a difference.

"I did never think it would count or matter," Joseph said Tuesday while waiting for his neighbor to vote outside the Allen Temple.

He went inside the church at 5:20 p.m. and walked out 13 minutes later a changed man.

"It was good," he said of the experience. "It was easy, real quick. I'll probably do it from now on."

Brenda Pierce voted for George W. Bush the last two presidential elections. No more of that, she said.

"Obama," she answered when asked whom she voted for at Precinct No. 303 at the AME church. "I think it would be better."

The color of his skin doesn't matter, said Pierce, 41. "It's a change of plans," she said.

Last-minute voters rushed to Middleton High School with just a half hour left to vote. For Kimberly Anderson, who works in the health insurance field, the tanking economy was enough to convince her to vote for the first time. "We are due for a change," said Anderson, who voted for Obama. So what if critics argue he doesn't have enough experience. "Clinton didn't, Bush didn't. I think he is going to change our country."

Rita Jackson, a social worker for the state, voted for Obama. "I want change," the 47-year-old woman said. "A lot of stuff will change after this."

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