It's a busy morning as voters head to the polls. The Hudson Valley is made up of a growing number of minority groups, including Latin and Muslim-American.

According to a Muslim American political engagement group, Emgage, Muslim turnout has been growing in recent years. Nearly 1.1 million Muslim voters, or 71% of registered Muslim voters, cast a ballot in the 2020 general election. That’s an uptick of two percentage points compared to the 2016 turnout.

Adil Ameer is a U.S. citizen of more than 40 years. Ameer, who is originally from Pakistan, is a member of the Muslim American community in Poughkeepsie.

“I’ve always voted in every election if possible,” Ameer said. “I’ve also tried to encourage some of the other people in the Muslim community to vote.”

Ameer feels the Muslim American community is underrepresented in politics and hopes to change that. Recent polling suggests New York voters are heading to the polls thinking about the economy.

Ameer believes the same issues are relevant for Muslim voters, and a driving force for getting them out to the polls.

“Inflation has been rampant in this country. It’s affecting almost every family in this country,” Ameer said. “People are quite concerned about inflation but more importantly some of the other underlying economic factors.”

Ameer is active in “Get Out the Vote” efforts, to encourage Muslim Americans and immigrants like himself to take part in the democratic process of their adopted home.

“I have been quite actively involved in trying to get Muslim voters registered,” he said. “I work with the Board of Elections. I work with our mosque, to try and get registrations, or try to get people to vote. I hope we are able to have as good a turnout as we possibly can.”

His wife and children are also politically engaged.

“Every vote counts,” Ameer said. “So I think for politicians, every vote in the Hudson Valley will be very important regardless of the ethnic, religious or other racial background of the voters. Muslim voters represent a tremendously credible group. A lot of them are in health care, a lot of them are young families, so they have concerns and issues such as health care, education, safety and security, which are common across the board.”

Ameer believes Muslim voices aren’t necessarily being heard.

“I think there’s a definite disconnect at this time,” he said. “Politicians have not reached out to the Muslim community. Usually politicians always go where the votes are. The reason they have not reached out to the Muslim community is because of lack of recognition of the relevance, the credibility and the validity of the Muslim voters.”

He wants Muslims to become an important voting group so they can demand accountability and representation from their elected leaders.

“By the Muslims becoming more active, in trying to participate in the political process, will automatically give them a sense of relevance,” he said, “and that will then create the resonance they’ll need to have with the politicians about being listened to and being attentive to what the Muslim issues are.”