[New York reporter Gao Shiyun reported on June 22 New York] The election of city councillors in the 38th district of Sunset Park has attracted much attention from Chinese people on 8 Avenue . As of 11:45 pm on the 22nd, Alexa Aviles, a radical left-wing candidate from Hispanic, was far ahead with a vote-winning 44.2%, basically securing the victory. Lin Yu, a young Fujian man who shoulders the deep expectations of Chinese people, received a total of 1,561 votes, less than half of Aviles, ranking second with 19%. Currently, 55.36% of the votes have been counted, and it is expected that the remaining ballots and mail-in ballots will not affect the overall situation.
After the preliminary vote counting results that night were released, Lin Yu congratulated Aviles, and he also deeply thanked the campaign team and the community for their support and attention. "I was a little disappointed, but it was reasonable. After all, campaigning is different from buying lottery tickets. Lottery can reach the top in one step, and campaigns must be steady and steady." He said: "This is not a bad result. Just be calm. After all, we Chinese are very low in politics on the Badao."
Lin Yu pointed out that this time he led the novice team to try again, learned a lot through the election, and accumulated a lot of experience and lessons. In fact, many campaign nodes have not figured out, such as when to donate, when to register voters and sign signatures, etc. For example, the registration of voter in March overlaps with the signature. Although its team has made every effort to register more than 3,000 Chinese voters on Badao, due to various reasons such as not registering parties, a large number of high-quality votes have been lost, and this reason alone has lost nearly half of the votes.
"Strictly speaking, we cannot 'help' them register which party, we can only explain. Sometimes when the explanation is not understood, or if the information is not safe, they will ask to take the registration letter away, fill it out and send it themselves, and finally register as a non-party." In addition, because it is a new team, it requires a lot of training, correction and running-in, which also makes the initial campaign very difficult. "Fortunately, I have seen a lot of improvements this time, and I will definitely do better next time!"
Lin Yu emphasized: Campaigning is not a matter of one person, it requires cooperation from the entire community. However, the legal knowledge of the Badao Chinese community on the election is still at a relatively primitive level, and the conversion rate of Chinese people from enthusiasm and support to votes is very low. For example, many enthusiastic people may not be citizens, or voters, or are not Democrats, or do not know what to do at any time. As a result, after passing these levels, the votes that are actually obtained in the end are "one ten is not saved".
"The awareness is very good, but the knowledge has not kept up." Lin Yu described that Chinese people are still very strong, good at organizing activities and donating, but the most lacking link is the understanding of formal legal processes, and some things can only be seen to see the results and know whether they have any effect. He believed that these could be accumulated slowly, and they would become familiar again and again - "Don't be discouraged, it's good to take the first step!"
What made him happy was that he established a good relationship with the Hispanic neighborhoods in Sunset Park through the campaign. The two immigrant communities have lived together for many years, but the real alliance has not happened yet. This friendship is special and precious. Next, Lin Yu hopes that more people can come out to increase the space for Chinese people to participate in politics, and he will continue to serve the Sunset Park community with people from the community.
Supporters cheered Lin Yu on election night. (Provided by Lin Yu's team)
