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On a warm September afternoon at the Boyle Heights Senior Center, Alma Miranda sits quietly, scanning her bingo card in hopes of hearing the host call out her winning tile: N-40.
A woman across the room shouts “Bingo!” winning the round. Miranda laughs to herself and admits defeat, knowing that she’ll have another chance next week. The center is a second home to Miranda and close to 50 other seniors in the neighborhood. But the Boyle Heights Senior Center will play a different role in the community this November: a polling center.
Miranda, 77, will be among those lining up to cast her vote, just like she has in every major election since becoming a U.S. citizen in 1996 after arriving in the country from Mexico in 1964.
“You have to take charge of your life and I want to see things change for [my grandchildren],” Miranda said. “I’m at the end of my journey. I could be gone tomorrow.”
When it comes to voting and political engagement, Miranda is not alone. Data show the pool of this country’s likely voters tends to be older. Those aged 65 and up comprise about 17% of the U.S. population but made up nearly a third of ballots cast in the 2022 midterms.
As the electorate grows, so does the average age. By 2040, 22% of Americans will be over the age of 65, according to a report by the Administration on Aging. The reality of an aging country means that politicians need to recognize the challenges and needs of seniors.
As Miranda has aged, she noticed more and more politicians don’t prioritize the health and well-being of seniors, among her top concerns.
“We need support,” she said. “The doctor says, ‘We’ll see you in three months.’ In three months you can be dead. We don’t have the time anymore to wait.”
In her Boyle Heights neighborhood, Miranda said public safety and homelessness are other top concerns. She acknowledged the drop in crime around Los Angeles, but still felt at risk.
“I don’t feel safe going to the market, going to church,” she said. “I don’t feel safe anymore on the street or sidewalk.”
Former pharmacist and long-time voter Maria Quiñones, 75, said over the phone in an interview with Boyle Heights Beat that she worries about politicians wanting to cut Social Security. “I could not survive only on Social Security,” she said. “With a car [payment] and the insurance and the rent, no way. Social Security does not cover that.”
Quinonez mirrors many Latino seniors on the Eastside who depend on government services to make ends meet. But while she may be engaged in elections, many other older Latinos haven’t mobilized at the same rate as others in the country.
Nationally, the older population that tends to get to the polls is disproportionately white and more affluent. In L.A. County, nearly 38% of registered voters in the 2020 general election were Latino. About 15% of that group was projected to be over the age of 65, compared with 25% of non-Latinos in the same age group, according to National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) 2022 voter profile data.
That’s why people like East L.A. resident Tomas Benitez see voting as a duty – to make his voice heard. The 72-year-old called voting the most direct participation in democracy you can have and that Election Day should be a holiday.
“I think of it as a sacred trust,” said Benitez, who has a long history of activism. “People have died for the vote, and even in my most wild, radical days in the early 70s, I voted because I felt it was an important duty. I think it’s the number one duty of American citizens.”
Like Quiñones, Benitez said he will support politicians who pledge to uphold social systems, like healthcare and Social Security.
“To threaten Social Security, to threaten Medical, to threaten Medicare is to threaten our lives,” Benitez said of politicians like Donald Trump who’ve suggested making cuts to the programs. “I find that to be…going out of your way to injure a population that is already vulnerable.”
Luis Campillo, a representative at AARP, formerly the American Association of Retired Persons, says that most seniors share Quiñones and Benitez’ sentiments about supporting politicians that want to bolster protection for Social Security benefits.
Campillo also says that politicians who support expanding Medicare and Medicaid coverage are also popular among older adults, as are programs that benefit family care, as it is typically an unpaid relative caring for aging loved ones.
Programs like DACA, the immigration policy that gives young immigrants protection from deportation for two year intervals, and other paths to citizenship are equally as important to Benitez, saying they help immigrant-dominant communities like Lincoln Heights and Boyle Heights.
When it comes to local leadership, Benitez said that he was satisfied with the work of local politicians like Hilda Solis, Wendy Carrillo and Kevin De León, but they can always do more to protect the most vulnerable.
“They work with the system, and the system is not paying attention to the Latino population at the level that it needs to,” he said.
Miranda shares a similar view. She feels like corruption has touched local politicians, including both the current and former Council District 14 councilmen, José Huizar and De León. But because Miranda doesn’t know much about CD 14 candidate Ysabel Jurado, she said she still might reluctantly vote for De León.
“I tell Kevin everytime he comes [to the senior center]. He comes and hugs me and I tell him that we’re still here and not to forget that we elected him,” she said.
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