Chicago Voters (SLIDESHOW)
From the Associated Press:
Lines of voters stretched down hallways and out doorways Tuesday, as Illinoisans flocked to the polls to cast their ballot in a historic election.Voting was heavy in Chicago and its suburbs, where some voting glitches were reported. But for the most part, voters appeared upbeat, with even the unseasonably warm weather cooperating.
"I've never seen a line going out the door and up the block like that," said Pam Gecan, who walked her dog past a polling place in Chicago's Bucktown neighborhood.
Voting was slowed early at the polling place, the Club Lucky bar and restaurant, when a touchscreen voting machine broke down and three election judges failed to show up. Three volunteers were recruited from among voters standing in line, and the line started moving again, with voters using paper ballots until the machine could be fixed.
Charles Jones didn't have much of a wait in East St. Louis, where the 72-year-old retired General Motors worker was able to vote immediately after walking to the National Guard armory.
Jones says he voted for Barack Obama and was excited at the prospect of electing the nation's first black president. Jones says he believes Obama would help create desperately needed jobs in his struggling community and in the nation.
In the city's Hyde Park neighborhood, where Obama once taught at the University of Chicago's law school, 23-year-old Shenae Robinson was excited enough that she wasn't going to let a cold or difficulty finding the polling place prevent her from voting for the first time in her life.
"I feel like I'm a part of history," said Robinson, a black licensed practical nurse. "My ancestors made it so I can vote today."
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advertisementNot everyone, though, shared that kind of enthusiasm for the Illinois senator.
When asked how she voted, Shirley Goin, 71, of Champaign replied, "Palin," referring to Republican nominee John McCain's vice presidential runningmate Sarah Palin. "Oh, and McCain," she said after a pause.
She said she feared an Obama presidency would be "disastrous."
"All these other programs Obama says he wants to institute are going to bankrupt us," she said.
At Benita's Beauty Salon on Chicago's West Side, Thurman Chambers, 75, drove to the polls with his 91-year-old neighbor Virginia Pietron. He voted for McCain, she voted for Obama.
"I had enough of Bush," Pietron said.
Betty Edwards of the wealthy Chicago suburb of Kenilworth said she's voted Republican most of her life -- and her family has strongly opposed Democrats since Franklin Delano Roosevelt's presidency.
But the 88-year-old Edwards broke with family tradition and voted for Obama.
"I like his independence, his attitude and intelligence," she said.
But another Kenilworth resident Bill Whitt says he didn't feel comfortable with McCain or Obama. So he voted for libertarian candidate Bob Barr.
Whitt, 44, said he admires Obama but said he's "too much of a classic big government liberal." He agrees with McCain on many economic policies but thinks the Republican is too old and has shown "erratic judgment" during the campaign.
University of Illinois student Olivia Cangellaris, 19, said she has been following the presidential race closely, and went to the polls with her mother, Helen, where both voted for Obama.
"It's really exciting," she said of her first presidential election. "I've been following it pretty closely ... they say it's a historic election."
See pictures of Chicagoans voting:
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First Posted: 11- 4-08 03:40 PM | Updated: 12- 5-08 05:12 AM