New Citizen’s 35-Year Dream of Voting Fulfilled in Hospital Bed

Her life’s dream was to vote in a presidential election.

Severina Villar finally accomplished that Thursday in a West Covina hospital’s intensive care unit, where she is being treated for cancer.

After a federal magistrate traveled to her bedside to swear her in as a U.S. citizen and her family helped her register to vote by mail, Los Angeles County officials delivered an absentee ballot to the 60-year-old La Puente woman.

And as respiratory monitors and other hospital equipment whirred and beeped around her, she cast her first--and perhaps last--ballot.

“This is very important to me,” Villar said softly as she studied candidates’ names and propositions. “This is the only way you can make a difference.”

Villar said she has wanted to vote for 35 years--since she and her husband, Sergio, emigrated from Mexico.

But Sergio Villar, a construction worker, always dissuaded her from thinking about U.S. citizenship.

“I didn’t think it was necessary. I always thought we might go back to Mexico to live,” he explained.

He changed his mind when his wife became ill 1 1/2 years ago. Together, they studied and took the citizenship test. But she was too sick to go to naturalization ceremonies Aug. 10 at the Los Angeles Convention Center when he was sworn in.

Sergio Villar, also 60, was frantic. “She had never even voted in Mexico. I had to do something to help her,” he said.

Officials at La Puente City Hall referred him to Rep. Esteban Torres (D-Pico Rivera), who arranged for a federal magistrate to swear in Severina Villar on Oct. 16. Her husband got her a mail-in voter registration form. Then he called county officials for help.

Aides to county Supervisor Gloria Molina delivered the absentee ballot to her bedside Thursday afternoon and then drove it to the county registrar-recorder’s office in Norwalk after she marked it.

“She’s working so hard to make voting one of her last acts before she dies,” Molina said. “When you hear about something like this it brings goose bumps.”

County Registrar-Recorder Conny McCormack said Severina Villar’s vote will count no matter what happens to her between now and election day. Villar was alive when she cast her ballot--and that’s what counts when it comes to the law, McCormack said Thursday.

Back in West Covina, meantime, the voting left Villar feeling good for a change. It’s a shame that Tuesday’s turnout could be a record low for a presidential election, she indicated.

“Just sitting there doing nothing is not good,” she said. “You need to vote for the good of your country.”