The first Tuesday in November has been a first for many in
Gilroy.
The first Tuesday in November has been a first for many in Gilroy.
Carol Henry, 45, cast her first ballot today. Yes on Obama, yes on the library bond and yes on the school bond, she said outside Anchorpoint Christian School in east Gilroy. About 100 had cast their ballots as of noon.
That included a man named Frank who declined to give his last name but was more than willing to promote the school and library bonds, as well as Sen. John McCain.
“Yes on education, family and religion,” he said.
Minutes later a woman from the outskirts of Gilroy came through bellowing, “We got to get Sarah in the office!”
Across the country, millions of people streamed to the polls to help elect the nation’s first black president or its first woman vice president. But, polarity manifested itself again minutes later when 82-year-old Frieda Friedman-Surgey emerged from the polls advocating “the importance of our future.”
“We really made a hell of a mess of things,” Friedman-Surgey said.
Bret Earle, who voted no on Prop 8, also went against the school and library bonds because “we’re in hard time now.”
In a comical tone, he added that he voted against Prop 8 because gays “should very much be a part of the misery that is marriage.”
Soon thereafter a longtime Gilroy couple made their way to their black Mercedes sedan having voted yes on the library and school bonds “because education’s the most important thing there is,” the wife said as they slid into their car.
Across town at Eliot Elementary School, where there were no voting problems as of noon.
Martial Arts Instructor Tobias Farmer, 48, also cast his first ballot along with his friend, Lea Legnon, 41.
“We just need more stuff for the kids to do,” Farmer said before vowing to vote in favor of the library and school bonds.
“If we’re going to be in a deficit, we might as well be doing something for the community,” Farmer said. “Knowledge doesn’t know any deficit.”
“We need resources to occupy our children,” added Legnon, who has a 6-year-old child.
Across the nation, polls opened to long lines of enthusiastic voters who hadn’t bothered to show up in years.
“We’re seeing people we’ve never seen before,” said Julie Guerrero, an election officer at Rucker Elementary School who’s been volunteering her time for the last five years. “They just keep on coming.”
When the polls opened at 7 a.m. in the library at the school, a steady stream of voters filtered through the doors, with few delays. But over at the Sunrise Fire Station, voters lined up out the door first thing in the morning, said Kim Weber, a volunteer election officer.
“The voting was pretty heavy, then it thinned out once people headed off to work,” he said. “You’d be surprised by how many people who are inactive voters and haven’t voted in the last few elections. They’re all showing up today. It’s pretty neat.”
Like many of the voters who were driven to the polls by this year’s historic presidential election, Weber said he was swept away by the excitement and that’s why he volunteered.
First time voter David Almeida, 19, emerged from the polls about 10 a.m. after casting his ballot for Sen. Barack Obama.
“It’s exciting,” he said. “I’m really amped about this presidential election.”
Although he was almost convinced to vote for Ralph Nader, Almeida said this election is just too important to let his vote go to someone that wasn’t Obama.
“I just couldn’t do it,” he said. “I would be really bummed if (Sen. John) McCain won.”
Accompanied by his older brother, James Almeida, 22, who also voted for Obama, the two agreed that they could more easily relate to the younger presidential candidate, as could many of their friends.
“I really don’t like McCain to be honest,” James Almeida said. “When I see him talk, I can’t help but think he’s saying a lot of bull crap. Obama seems more honest. He admits it’s not going to be easy to turn this country around.”
“Personally, I like that Obama’s got a BlackBerry and knows how to use it,” he added. “He’s really into technology. I got a text when he chose his vice president. I don’t want my president not able to use a computer like McCain.”
The Almeidas also voted yes on Measure P – the $150 million school bond – and voted for Mark Good for one of the three open slots for the Gilroy Unified School District Board of Trustees. They were not able to vote on the library bond since they lived outside city limits.
“He’s a cool guy and I didn’t know much about the other candidates,” said James Almeida of Good.
Although David Almeida didn’t originally like the idea of a new high school and the possibility of it dividing the town, he ultimately voted for the school bond because of the overcrowding at Gilroy High School. Besides, the community has to vote yes or else they’ll be stuck with a half-built school sitting in a field, he said.
The Almeidas were some of Gilroy’s youngest voters but a group of second graders toured the polls at Rucker, quietly observing while voters ducked into the three polling booths in their library.
About 15 students stuck “I voted” stickers on their shirts after their teacher, Beth Newick, lead them through the polls, explaining the joys of voting.
A group of more experienced voters emerged from the polls at Sunrise fire station, having just voted for McCain. A staunch Republican, Mike Guevara, a small business owner, said he “voted for McCain all the way.”
“We would not have voted for Obama, period,” he said. “He has too many ties to crazy people. McCain is ex-military. He loves this country.”
“We love Sarah,” Linda Guevara chimed in, referring to Gov. Sarah Palin.
Guevara’s voting experience was a family affair and his wife and grandsons joined him at the polls.
“We brought the whole family. Either you vote my way or you get kicked to the curb,” he said, holding out the “cheat sheet” that his family reviewed before marking their ballots.
The family also voted for Mark Good and abstained from voting for or against the library and school bonds for lack of information on the two measures. They planned to stick close to the television for the remainder of the day to monitor the election results.
Evelyn Wycoff, 64, who’s voted in every presidential election since she was 18 also voted for McCain and Palin.
“I feel like the country needs change but I don’t believe in his kind of change,” she said of Obama. “I like the fact that McCain chose a woman as his running mate. I think she can contribute. Women have more of a sense of family and Palin has good family values.”
While most voters flocked to the polls because of the presidential race, Lori Ohman, 43, had another reason to cast her ballot. State Proposition 8, an initiative that would to eliminate the right of same-sex couples to marry, is a hotly contested ballot measure that supporters and opponents pushed down to the wire.
“I voted no on 8,” she said, standing next to her partner of nearly 17 years, Michelle Napier, 48.
Although the couple isn’t exactly rushing to the alter, “it would be nice to have the option,” Ohman said.
“It’ll be 17 years together,” Napier said. “I think that’s pretty great.”
The two share a home together and never ran into any snags until Napier underwent surgery a few years ago. Ohman wasn’t allowed to partake in some of her partner’s medical decisions or see Napier before the surgery.
“That’s the only discrimination we’ve run into,” Napier said.
At the Chestnut Fire Station, 51 people had voted as of 10:45 a.m. with no problems.
Nearby, at Glen View Elementary School, 600 W. 8th St., Joy and Haran Schoming – a couple together for 41 years – held up “Yes on Prop 8” signs.
“We’re not taking things away from anybody, but that’s unfortunately the way it started,” Joy Schoming said in regard to the marriage proposition.
As far as the school and library bond, Haran Schoming said, “These are good things to have, but how can we spend all this money and drive ourselves further into debt?”
Just across the street, Karin Clements and her 5-year-old daughter stood outside Glen View Elementary School. The mother said in support of the school and library bonds, “I’ll live in this community for a while and see some returns (on these bonds).”
Across the state, voters stood in line – and were proud of it.
“I’m stoked. This is a historic event,” said Andrew Lind, 28, who wore a green Barack Obama T-shirt under his jacket as he stood in line at an elementary school in the Los Feliz area of Los Angeles.
Moderate lines were reported early in the day at many polling places around the state. Voters clutched coffee cups to stay warm or tuned into their iPods to pass the time.
Voting officials reported waits of less than an hour. Three Los Angeles area polling locations were moved outside because of apparent power outages caused by light morning rain that later gave way to clear skies.
At a polling place in the San Fernando Valley, voting was slowed when a worker accidentally left vote-recording devices at home and voters had to fill in circles with a pen to designate their choices.
The lines didn’t seem to bother many people.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Tatti Negri, who has overseen elections in a Hollywood neighborhood since 1990. People were already lined up when she arrived at 6 a.m.
“Everyone’s in fabulous spirit,” she said. “People are waiting in a long line and are proud of it.”
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama held a hefty lead in state polls over his Republican contender John McCain. Polls showed a close race on statewide ballot measures on parental notification for abortion and gay marriage.
In San Francisco, new U.S. citizen John Gillham, 43, waited 15 minutes to vote for the first time ever in this country at the Third Baptist Church. “I’m voting for the black guy,” he said.
In Hollywood, sisters Geraldine and Melva Denham, who are black, said they took the day off work to travel to polling places and give food to election workers.
“My grandparents paid poll taxes in Texas to vote. It’s emotional,” Melva Denham said.
In downtown Los Angeles, a smooth flow of voters filed into a polling station set up in a 32-story condominium tower. Disney art director Ellen Jin-Over, 35, said she had been a registered Democrat until recently but switched to Republican.
“I don’t like what Obama is presenting as far as expansion of government programs,” she said. “I don’t like McCain either, but he is better than Obama.”
There were no lines at a polling place at a Glendale car dealership, where Ichiro Yoshizawa, 79, a retired toolmaker, said he voted for McCain because his experience as a prisoner of war in Vietnam would make him a good commander-in-chief.
“That shows that me that he loves his country first,” Yoshizawa said.
Jo’Ann DeQuattro said she voted Democrat because she was dismayed by the war in Iraq.
“People say how it’s the economy, I say it was always the war,” DeQuattro said. “Billions of dollars have been spent on this unjust war.”
Voters also had strong feelings about Proposition 8, the state ballot measure that would ban same sex marriage.
John McAndrews, 38, voted against the initiative at the San Francisco church.
“Everybody’s free to love who they want. It shouldn’t matter,” he said.
In Sacramento. Richard Jackson, 56, an in-home caretaker, voted for Proposition 8 because he didn’t want same-sex marriage to be taught in schools.
“In the Bible, it wasn’t Steve and Steve, it was Adam and Eve,” he said. “They don’t need to put that in schools. It ain’t right. I’ve got 24 grandkids and a little girl who’s seven, and I don’t want them around that.”
Record-breaking voter registration – which pushed the state’s voter rolls above 17.3 million, 5 percent higher than in the 2004 presidential election – led officials to add precincts and poll workers and order more ballots to meet the expected demand.
In Orange County, some 400 people were on alert in case problems were reported with the all-electronic voting system, said Brett Rowley, community outreach manager for the county registrar.
“We’ve got paper ballots as a backup,” he said.
In San Bernardino County, rainy weather may have kept people from voting in the early morning. The county had about 829,000 registered voters and added polling places, personnel and phone lines in expectation of a big turnout.
“We’ve thrown everything at this election, but I do know there’s still a long day ahead of us,” said Kari Verjil, the county registrar.
Associated Press contributed to this story.
