LOS ANGELES — Florentina Serna has waited more than three decades to cast a ballot. She still can't. When election day comes around and she sees the propositions and candidates and knows she can't do a thing to help change her hometown, she feels powerless.
Her daughter, Maria Serna, can vote but rarely exercises the right her 55-year-old mother covets. It's a circumstance that frustrates Florentina — and anyone who runs for office in the city of Los Angeles.
"She's on top of us about it, me and my sister," Maria, 37, said sheepishly as she stood outside a supermarket in the family's Arleta neighborhood. Florentina is waiting for her naturalization ceremony to be scheduled so she can register to vote.
