Opinion: Barack Obama and John McCain cast their ballots
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(UPDATE: See below)
This morning, John McCain and Barack Obama voted in the most important election of their lives.
McCain cast his ballot at the Albright United Methodist Church in Phoenix. He arrived there with his wife, Cindy McCain, at 10 a.m. PST, and was greeted by supporters shouting his name and ‘We love you.’
The Republican presidential candidate walked into the polling place holding his ballot and showed his I.D. to the poll workers. After filling out their ballots at a table, he and his wife dropped them into a blue box marked ‘early ballots.’ It took just five minutes.
McCain emerged wearing an “I voted today’ sticker on his lapel.
Meanwhile, in Chicago, Obama was voting at Beulah Shoesmith Elementary School on the city’s South Side. (See video of Obama voting by clicking on the Read more line below.)
The Democratic candidate arrived at 9:36 a.m. PST (just minutes after neighbor Bill Ayers departed). Obama was accompanied by....
...his wife, Michelle Obama, and their daughters, Sasha and Malia.
Here is an excerpt from the pool report filed by the reporter who was with the family:
Malia went into the polling booth with Michelle and Sasha hung out in her own polling booth looking very grown up. She then looked on as Obama cast his ballot. Later, she hugged Obama’s leg looking impatient. Voters told your pooler that there are about 60 state and local judges on the ballot so it took a fairly long time to get through. Michelle took longer than Obama to finish her ballot. She did not look up from the ballot at all, while Obama grinned occassionally at his daughters.
When Obama cast his ballot, he announced to the few dozen onlookers snapping photos with their camera phones, ‘I voted.’ The crowd let out a big cheer. ‘He’s sort of a hometown favorite,’ said Addison Braendel, 44 and an attorney who lives four houses down from Obama in Hyde Park. Obama shook hands with voters. When he headed toward the door, the crowd roared with applause.
(UPDATE: Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin voted in Alaska this morning. According to the pool reporter, Palin voted at the Wasilla City Hall -- the same location where she held official
meetings as a city council member and mayor.)
-- Kate Linthicum
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