History
I don't how to describe what I just went through so I'm just going to spit out the simple facts as I recall them.
I was in Nevada for the election, as a member of Obama's volunteer lawyer corps. Our mission was to monitor individual precincts for any election law irregularities or violations, up to and including the handling of the electronic voting machines after the polls were closed. This project was the brainchild of the Democratic National Committee as a direct result of the Bush-Gore fiasco in 2000, and it was adopted wholeheartedly by Barack Obama. I'm unaware of how well-organized it was for Kerry in 2004 but the depth and level of organization in 2008 was simply awesome. A lawyer from New York and I were both assigned as partners to monitor a polling station in central Las Vegas, very close to the Strip. Once the doors were closed to voters for the night, our job was to walk through each of the 15 machines with a county employee to observe the machine counts, removal of data cartridges, sealing of the cartridges into a secured box for delivery to the state, tabulation of the numbers, and dismantling of the machines.
Before the polls closed, we had no major incidents at our station. Turn-out seemed low to me but I later learned that it was actually a healthy 70%. It probably appeared low because the precinct had so many machines in place that the lines were always short. Toward the end of the day, we encountered a few first-time Obama voters who were turned away because they were at the wrong polling station but had no transportation to their correct precincts. We made an executive decision to temporarily remove my "legal monitor" cap and put on my "get out the vote" cap by personally shuttling them around. These citizens were thrilled to the core to be participating in the process. One of them, a young African-American, marvelled at the fact that he would tell his kids one day how proud he was to have voted for Barack Obama.
One voter I shuttled was a disabled Vietnam veteran who was voting for McCain. As I helped him to my car I jokingly asked if he'd be okay sitting in a car with a huge "Obama" sign taped to the rear windshield, which of course he was. He asked me at one point, "Why are you doing this? What do you get out of it?" I told him I believe in my candidate but I also believe in the democratic process, so I was simply happy to help him exercise his rights as a citizen. This, I have to say, is what the Obama campaign trained me to do. I hope I permanently influenced that veteran's view of President-elect Obama and his supporters. I think I did.
As the day wore on, I started getting text messages from friends around the country reporting results to me. Emotions among the Nevada volunteers were already extremely high, and they got more and more charged as results started coming in. The first report I got was of Vermont, which proved to be the first state to be declared a supporter of a black presidential candidate in US history. I barely had time to revel in that moment as I scurried about, when a string of eastern and southern results came in, some for Obama. Then came Pennsylvania and New Hampshire, at which point I began writing back to friends, "It's over." On the ground, we volunteers could barely contain ourselves. Our job was to stay at our precincts to monitor the closing of the polls, and stay afterward to handle the machine shut-downs, and that was tough. As Florida, Ohio, and ultimately Colorado came in, the New York lawyer I was partnered with and I exchanged alternating looks of shock, determination not to be distracted, impatience and sheer happiness.
Once the tabulations and shut-downs were accomplished, we got in our cars to drive to the Rio casino in Las Vegas where the campaign was hosting a volunteer and staff party. As I pulled out of the precinct's parking lot, I turned on the radio and heard Senator McCain deliver his concession speech with honor and dignity, and that's when the tears of joy and disbelief began to flow for me. The Rio had a massive hall set aside for Obama staff and was filled with what I'd estimate to be two or three thousand people. A huge movie screen-sized television was broadcasting coverage of the results and media were everywhere. My timing was good, as Senator Obama was set to take the stage for his acceptance speech within a matter of minutes. People inside were hugging complete strangers, crying, high-fiving each other, congratulating each other, and the air was electric. With each mention on the screen of the simple fact of Obama's victory, a huge roar from the crowd would go out. When they showed one scene of people dancing in the streets in Kenya, the ground seemed to shake with the crowd's reaction. It was like being in a rock concert or a sports auditorium.
The moment the television showed Mr. Obama entering was something I'll remember as long as I live. It was so loud I couldn't hear myself think. When he opened his speech with those now famous first words ("If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible..."), the intensity of emotion in the room was palpable. I had given up long ago of pretending I wasn't crying, which was okay, because everyone else was too.
Eventually, I met up with other volunteers I'd befriended throughout this unforgettable day. As we roamed around the casino soaking in the atmosphere, people would see us or we would see them and just yell out the single word to each other: "Obaaaamaaaaaaaaa!" It quickly became a regular vocabulary word of everyone in the Rio. Everywhere you'd go, people would spot an Obama t-shirt, Obama pin or whatever and spontaneously burst out crying to each other, "Obama!"
For many of us including me, it was a day that started as early as 3:30 a.m. Fittingly, it wasn't until almost exactly 24 hours later that I finally decided to stop partying and make my way back to the hotel to catch some sleep. I turned to one of the young lawyers who directed the Nevada legal team effort to shake his hand and say goodbye, and I drunkenly told him, "Thank you for making history." He looked back and said, "We did it together."
Note: (Here's a local newspaper's account of what I just described).
