Region lined up for day to remember

As though responding to a rung bell, Philadelphia-area residents drained out of condos and cul-de-sacs, rowhouses and split-levels, to stand in rain and long lines yesterday so that they could choose the leader of the free world.

Cynics who said they had never paid attention to elections before were queuing up beside first-time voters giddy to participate, themselves standing next to faithful electors for whom picking a president was sacred duty.

"We've never seen anything like this," said ward leader Janet Chrzan in the Brookline section of Haverford Township - a notion echoed throughout the area, as record numbers of voters turned out on a day that crackled with portent and felt like history.

In an American exercise linking Allegheny Avenue to Cody, Wyo., the Main Line to the Florida Panhandle, people in this region added vote upon vote to a blossoming national aggregate.

And it changed the country overnight.

"I'm ready for a change," said Kim Calloway, 47, outside the Glassboro municipal building in Gloucester County yesterday morning. "I'm sad to say I never voted. I just thought, what does it matter what I do? But times are hard, and I think [Sen. Barack] Obama will make it better. We get hope. It will be a better world."

At 5 a.m., Christine Avent, 85, sat down in a chair inside the Country Club Administration Building in Willingboro an hour before the polls opened.

"Yes, Lord, this is an important day," said Avent, an Obama supporter. "I feel like the Doctor," she said, referencing the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. "He said, 'I've been to the mountaintop and looked over to the promised land. I might not get there with you, but we'll get to the promised land.' "

In Avent's younger days, African Americans weren't allowed to eat with whites in some restaurants. Early yesterday, Avent's interpretation of the promised land - in which an African American becomes president - appeared to be in sight.

This pleased Ron Dobbins, a 73-year-old Republican who was eager to break ranks yesterday as he stood in line to vote in Laverock, Montgomery County. Growing up in West Philadelphia, Dobbins said he "lived segregation."

So it was with "a great deal of pride," he said, that he was casting his vote for Obama: "I didn't think I'd live to see the chance" of an African American becoming president.

The long lines seen throughout the day didn't dissuade voters. In fact, the wait was fine with Jonathan Carter, the 56-year-old operator of a window-cleaning business. He noted the 300 voters ahead of him at Central Bucks High School South in Warrington and resigned himself to being late for work.

"Think how hard it was to vote 100 years ago," Carter said philosophically. He labeled this election "incredibly historic," noting that a black man was on the presidential ballot 40 years after King was shot advocating racial equality.

"I think that's amazing," he said, though it wasn't remarkable enough to preclude him from voting for Sen. John McCain. Obama's talk of "spreading the wealth" turned Carter off.

Much of an entire state was turned off as well yesterday, at least the red part of a very blue one - the Garden State.

The mood was glum at First United Methodist Church in Moorestown, where Lois Downey said many of her fellow Republicans were discouraged that the state was commonly written off as Obama territory.

"McCain supporters in New Jersey feel very sad," said Downey, vice chairman of the Moorestown Republicans Municipal Committee.

"They feel their vote may not matter."

So why bother?

"A main motivation was posterity," she said. "When people's grandchildren ask, 'In this historic election, who did you vote for?', they can say they stood up."

Standing up for McCain in a region the pundits had long declared Obama territory was tough work. But in Cherry Hill, they labored on.

Several Orthodox Jews voting at the Kilmer Elementary School said they believed that Republicans usually demonstrated conservative religious values and a strong support for Israel.

"I believe that McCain is genuine, and I'm not confident in Obama," said Barry Seff, 32.

He added that he was concerned with Obama's statement that he would be willing to sit down with any leader to promote peace.

But he will not lose sleep over an Obama victory. "I think it's all up to God, anyway," Seff said. "I'd still support my government."

And in Atlantic City, the maverick New Jerseyans continued to make noise for their guy - and gal.

Joan Pense, 50, stood on Atlantic Avenue with a handmade McCain-Palin poster that read, "Read My Lipstick," "Abortion Stops a Beating Heart," and "United We Stand, Obama We Fall."

If that weren't enough, Pense also held a photo of her 8-year-old son, Benny, who, like Gov. Sarah Palin's son, has Down syndrome.

"I'm basically about telling people to think about morality when they vote," Pense explained.

In Gloucester County at the Washington Township Municipal Building, that rarest of birds - the voter still undecided while standing in line to cast a ballot - cropped up.

Michelle Barretta, 38, said this was her first voting experience. She reported feeling "kind of torn" by the candidates.

Barretta said that as a white person, she wasn't sure whether she could vote for Obama, because he's black. But she disliked McCain for his fealty to Bush.

How would she decide? "It may be who would do the least amount of damage," she said.

Across the river in Northeast Philadelphia, life got topsy-turvy.

Voting at Comly School, Republican Abraham Varughese declared himself "totally disillusioned" by the state of the economy. So he cast his ballot for Obama.

Leaping party lines from the other side of the fence, 88-year-old Lina Cardamone, a registered Democrat, voted for McCain. Abortion changed her vote.

"He [McCain] saves the innocent children," Cardamone said.

At a West Chester University dining hall, three 18-year-old African American freshmen from Yeadon caucused over breakfast after voting for the first time.

They were among the 35,000 newly registered voters ages 18 to 24 in Philadelphia and its Pennsylvania suburbs. Democratic youth far outnumbered Republicans.

Daniell Smith-Brown wore four Obama buttons. Alicia Benjamin, sporting just one "Be the Change" button, said the election was important to students struggling with financial aid.

Meanwhile, Danica Harris revealed that Smith-Brown had a serious crush on Obama.

Smith-Brown didn't deny it. "I will literally cry if he doesn't win," she said.

Among college students in North Philadelphia, there was a party feel yesterday.

Obama volunteers passed out cookies and chocolate bars to people waiting in line to vote at Temple University's Dendy Recreation Center.

"We're feeding everyone," said Sarah Kodish-Eskind, 22, a Temple art student. "But we're staying 10 feet away from polls," per election rules.

Howard Oles, 80, who has lived in North Philadelphia half his life, was enjoying the vibe - and the fact that young people were casting ballots.

"I'm just glad they're out there voting," he said.

Oles would have been pleased to see first-time voter Kazeem Animasaun standing in a long line at 5 p.m. with hundreds of other voters outside Penrose Recreation Center, where De La Soul's "Me Myself and I" blared from the loudspeaker.

A freshman at Temple, Animasaun, 18, said that earlier in the day, he'd gotten a call from his mother in his native Nigeria reminding him to vote.

Careful to heed the overseas admonishment, Animasaun had to wait two hours to cast his ballot.

"I don't mind," he said, grinning, "because I got a chance to make change."