Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

ELECTION 2008 :

Pride, anger, joy as Nevadans vote

Young and old, north and south, citizens take part in democracy

Mood

Leila Navidi

A motorist holds up a Barack Obama campaign sign at a stoplight at Rancho Drive and Lake Mead Boulevard on Tuesday in North Las Vegas.

Election Night 2008

McCain's Concession Speech

Viewing video requires the latest version of Adobe's Flash Player

  • McCain's Concession Speech
  • After Election, What's Next?
  • Dina Titus Acceptance Speech
  • Obama's Acceptance Speech
  • Jon Porter's concession
  • Shelley Berkley

Republican Watch Party at the Palazzo

The Republican Watch Party Election night at the Palazzo.

Democratic Watch Party at Rio

People attending the Democratic Watch Party awaited results from the presidential election and state congressional races.

Election Day in Las Vegas

At the Seven Seas Restaurant and Lounge in Las Vegas, Tina Bunn cheers as the presidential election is called for Barack Obama on Tuesday. Launch slideshow »

Obama speaks as president-elect

President-elect Barack Obama waves as he takes the stage at his election night party in Chicago's Grant Park, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2008. Launch slideshow »

Election Day in Las Vegas dawned cool and clear, a day when the mountains ringing the valley looked blue, just like on the license plates.

But while the rest of the nation awoke to jammed polling places, Nevada voters rarely had to wait long and usually could walk right in.

That’s what happens when nearly half of your registered voters cast ballots in the weeks before.

(Or maybe we’re just not morning people.)

Tuesday was an Election Day like no other in memory — a day filled with a peculiar energy, a mix of hope, despair, civic virtue and general nuttiness.

For some, it provided opportunity. Outside McDoniel Elementary School in Henderson, the people clustered in the parking lot were hawking not candidates but cupcakes and coffee, raising money for a school trip to Costa Rica. The cupcakes were frosted in nonpartisan red, white and blue.

Behind the gates of a south Summerlin golf course retirement community, a steady trickle of voters found no lines inside the Siena Social Center.

Taj Bakhshi, 67, an independent and immigrant, preferred Barack Obama for his economic policies and polite manners. More than that, he was happy to vote. “I feel wonderful,” Bakhshi said. “I never go to early voting, because this is a big day and a celebration of freedom.”

Terrance Teramana, 60, a marketing director and registered independent, also had nice words for Obama, praising his eloquence and intelligence, even if “he doesn’t know the mess he is getting himself into.”

More than anything, Teramana couldn’t stand career politicians and incumbents and said he couldn’t stand to be a part of the most expensive presidential race in history.

“I’m angry and I’m voting angry,” he said.

In the end, Teramana voted for independent Ralph Nader but said he would tell his friends he voted for McCain.

Jerry Greczek changed his registration from Republican to Democratic this year and said he was “disgusted with the corruption and stupidity of the last eight years.”

So is the country on the right track? “It’s on the way of the Roman Empire, actually,” Greczek said.

Another voter, who wouldn’t stop or give her name, told us her opinion of Obama and said we could print it in the newspaper.

Not in those words, we can’t.

At Lake Elementary, near Maryland Parkway and Desert Inn Road, Stan Storm, 84, a Nazi concentration camp survivor, said his last name described his mood this Election Day.

George W. Bush “sold the country down the river,” and Obama “is a Communist who can’t even produce his birth certificate,” he said.

Storm’s shock of white hair blowing in the brisk morning wind, he said the only reason he voted for John McCain was to get a vote to his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. “I think she’s got more brains than the other people together.”

Patricia Ortloff, 47, said she voted for McCain because she prayed about it, “and that was my answer.”

A member of the Mormon church and a medical office employee, Ort-

loff was anxious this day to see what the outcome foretells about how close the planet is to the second coming of Jesus Christ.

Over at Keller Middle School off Charleston Avenue and west of Nellis Boulevard, plumber Barry Ackerman had more earthly concerns as he carried a long tool of his trade into the school.

The tool is called a urinal auger, he said. “They got plugged drains. Gotta make sure the voting booths stay clean.”

And yes, he’s heard a lot people calling him “Barry the Plumber” recently. He voted for McCain because he is stronger on national security. “I feel safer with him,” Ackerman said. “Obama was good with the economy. I think national security is more important right now than the economy.”

Up in Reno, where voters had to brave snow and hail, Republican Maurice Brennan, 84, said she voted for a Democratic presidential candidate for the first time in her life.

She liked his message of hope, and former Secretary of State Colin Powell’s endorsement of Obama meant a lot to her. She didn’t like McCain’s pick of Palin for vice president.

Back in Henderson, at the Sun City Anthem Community Center, Palin was also on the mind of Republican Margaret McClintock, who voted for Obama.

“Hillary, yes. A lot of other women, yes. Palin, no,” McClintock said. “A woman winking at world leaders.”

North of the Interstate 215/Rainbow Boulevard interchange, at Sawyer Middle School’s gymnasium, the election brought marital discord.

Sue Stuart, 30, supported Obama because “he’s not a Republican” and because she dislikes Palin. Her husband, Jim Stuart, 28, supported McCain because he’s a member of the military and he trusts Republicans with the armed forces.

Sue Stuart said she chose the Democratic 3rd Congressional District candidate, Dina Titus, because she’s tired of the Republicans; Jim Stuart said he favored Porter because he doesn’t like the way Titus sounds (with her strong Georgia accent).

At Cadwallader Middle School at the northern end of the valley, where the sun sets behind Mount Charleston, Joyce Morris, 72, a retired middle school teacher, was excited. Black and a registered Democrat, she voted for Obama. She said she had just spoken with her 101-year-old friend, whose brother was lynched in the Jim Crow era.

It was a special day.

“To hear the joy in her voice,” Morris said, “to think that a brilliant young black man could be president ...”

There was no shortage of poll observers at the recreation center in tiny, traditionally Republican Boulder City. One even called the Sun newsroom to make sure its reporter there was who he said he was. (He was.)

Voters were split between Obama and McCain, but the two sides were of a single mind about the election itself.

“I’m so glad it’s over,” said Phil Esser, 66, a music minister and a registered independent who voted for Obama. “Shame on everybody. The television ads were the worst I’ve ever seen.”

For some voters, the election was more than some televisual spectacle. Carolyn Morgan, who voted at Priest Elementary School in North Las Vegas, is 47 and has four girls and a boy. And she has cancer.

She voted for Obama because she trusts that he’ll protect her health insurance. Despite everything, Morgan, who worked in dry cleaning for 30 years before getting sick, said she felt blessed to be alive and able to take her two youngest children to the polls.

At Kidd Mobile Home park, near the Eastside Cannery, Melanie Rodrigues, 35, a day care worker, came out of the polling place with a giant grin on her face. When a reporter asked her to describe her mood, she said it was the happiest day of her life.

Why is that?

“Because I voted for the first time.”

Sun reporters Liz Benston, Joe Brown, Joe Schoenmann, David McGrath Schwartz, Phoebe Sweet, Brian Eckhouse, Michael J. Mishak, Mike Trask, J. Patrick Coolican and Ron Kantowski contributed to this story.

Join the Discussion:

Check this out for a full explanation of our conversion to the LiveFyre commenting system and instructions on how to sign up for an account.

Full comments policy