I just voted for Barack Obama in an important swing state!

[Turn CO Blue]

Early voting started today in Colorado! I live in a northern suburb area in a city and county in Colorado called Broomfield (northwest of Denver, east of Boulder).

It was a very orderly process and I only waited about one minute in line. The poll workers said they'd had a steady stream of voters today.

I had my little cheat sheet with me (we have 18 ballot initiatives to sort through due to the ease of adding amendments to Colorado's constitution; many of these were anti-union stuff being pushed by out-of-state corporate and moneyed interests, several tax and bond initiatives, one issue on defining personhood as beginning at fertilization (ugh) and one designed to attempt to end affirmative action in Colorado).

So the vote was very important for all the state issues listed above, and I'd spent another half hour today of homework re-reading the ballot initiatives to be sure I was informed.

So I made my way through the ID process, went to another line to get a ballot and my felt pen, picked out a little booth with the word "VOTE" and the American flag image on it, and then peeled away the privacy sleeve on that very long ballot (front and back) and took a deep breath because I knew I was in for some five or ten minutes of the work of a citizen.

And then...I didn't expect to be quite so emotional when I looked down and saw Barack Obama's name. But I was. I was.

I teared up.

Seeing those words:

Barack Obama
Joe Biden
Democratic

Seeing those words was profoundly moving.

I closed my eyes to take it in.

And you'd better believe that I filled in that bubble more carefully than I have ever filled in a bubble in my entire life, including every aptitude test or final exam I ever took in school.

To Barack Obama: Thank you Barack for giving me somebody and something important to vote FOR. I was voting for all of us when I voted for you.

GObama!

= = =
tcb

[skooooo]

1. thank you! We sent our ballots in today too....

Washington's not a swing state, though -- but it will go blue for sure!

[livetohike]

2. Thanks for the great report

:patriot: GO COLORADO!! Wish we had early voting in PA.

[Lubernaut]

3. Awesome!

I turned in my Colorado absentee ballot (as well as my wife's) today.

Now I gotta do my volunteering getting people to the polls!

[Turn CO Blue]

14. THANK YOU for volunteering. I'm a canvass director for

election day here in our office and for the four days of GOTV. I really love the volunteers who love working for Obama!

[Lubernaut]

16. My dad runs the north Lakewood Obama office...

so it'd be pretty lame of me not to help out!

[Turn CO Blue]

17. Yep, the reception during the holidays could be a little chilly

if you didn't help out. And he can check up on your excuses.

[jpertello]

4. You Rock!!!!!!!!!!

[paregdem]

5. Good Gawd...Thank you for sharing this!

Love your post. The emotion and pride you felt came through loud and clear.

I can't wait to feel this myself!!!

:kick:

[barack the house]

I just love every story about every vote. It's historically special & will move us to another level.

[barack the house]

6. ...

[rollin74]

7. I love early voting

I cast my early vote Saturday here in Nevada. It was great. Less than a five minute wait, very convenient.
So far, in Nevada early voting, more than twice as many Democrats have voted than republicans. good start

[Glimmer of Hope]

8. Awesome. I can't wait to vote too.

[blaze]

9. Yes!!

Denver was such a mess last time, that I opted for a mail-in ballot this year. And I hand delivered it to the Denver Election Commission today!!!

I teared up when I marked my ballot (with a ruler, I'm a dork) and I teared up again as I slid it into the ballot box.

I was too young (barely) to vote for Kennedy, but I'm sure I understand how he inspired people. I have never been so inspired to vote for anyone before. Ever.

I have hope again.

[Turn CO Blue]

15. Welcome to DU! Thanks for sharing your voting story with us!

We gotta get all these Denver votes in early and on mail-ins so that we don't have the mess we had last time. No one, no one should have to walk away due to long lines!

[blaze]

20. Thanks for the welcome TCB!

I bounce between fretting and rejoicing and every other possible emotion!! I've never been such a wreck before!

[crispini]

10. It felt good, didn't it? I did a little happy dance in the voting booth

when I saw Obama's name. :D

[blaze]

13. I missed the voting booth :(

I actually love the ritual of voting.

But I have been periodically busting into my own little happy dance. :)

[Frustratedlady]

11. I had to laugh at your comment about filling in the oval carefully.

I thought I was the only one who gave extra attention to that portion of voting. I don't remember being that concerned in previous years, but I sure did this year. I didn't want anything to raise a flag and disqualify my ballot.

Go Obama and Joe!

[Gregorian]

12. YAY!

[GardeningGal]

18. Thank you for that.

I've been trying to decide between voting early or by mail. You may have just clinched it for me to vote early. I want to savor the moment as well.

As for all the ballot initiatives, did you use the blue book to make your decision or is there another resource I should be checking out.

Thanks.

[Turn CO Blue]

21. I was looking at the League of Women Voters and the blue book

and I also went to the Colorado Dems for their take.

Here are some links:

League of women voters for Colorado:
<http://www.lwvcolorado.org/Ballot_issues_2008.pdf>

Colorado Democrats
<http://www.coloradodems.org/>

[janx]

19. HEY!

I lived in Broomfield for 11 years before moving to NM in 2005! How's it going? (I think I'm even still on a Dem listserve from there...)
:hi:

[Turn CO Blue]

25. Well, we've got some momentum here in Broomfield!

I do see Palin signs (blech) of course, (Broomfield went for Bush by 5% last time) but we've got some fired up supporters here. I can't make any predictions, but the Obama groundgame is solid.

In fact, I suspect my user name is about to become obsolete.

The fall weather is gorgeous. I hope it holds out for our GOTV. The lawns are still mostly green right now as a contrast to the golden aspens. The red maples are really bright red-orange this year and of course there are burning bushes everywhere that have turned that lovely scarlet color.

[Psst_Im_Not_Here]

22. When I got my mail in ballot a couple weeks ago

I felt like I'd won the "Golden Ticket", practically skipped back into the house! Ripped the sucker open and started marking. Can you believe how many candidates for president there were on the Colorado ballot? It was like 10 tickets on there! And then I couldn't help but wonder "who the hell writes these ballot initiatives?!" and "who do they think they are writing for?" Our newspapers are written at an 8th grade reading level so that most people can understand what they are reading, yet on something as important as that, they write as though we all were president of the Harvard Law Review! It's ridiculous! I had to read some of them 2-3 times and I have a B.A.!

Maybe we need a ballot initiative to simplify the wording of ballot initiatives!

[Turn CO Blue]

26. Exactly! I have often said that we need to

have a law in Congress on the formatting of the bills - that they should be written in modern language with bullet-point format with no legalese, no archaic words (who the heck says heretofore and wherefore???) and written at the 8th or 9th grade level!

On the initiatives they put in a couple of negative words and then you have to re-read the deal a couple of times to decide if Yes means you agree or don't agree.

[Aloha Spirit]

23. As Michael Moore said, we will all be staggering into the voting booth this time, like a boxer

in the 12th round, all bloodied and bruised with one eye swollen shut, looking for the only thing that matters — that big 'D' on the ballot.

I voted today in one of those anti-American northeast towns!
Thanks for voting.
My family thanks you.

[CADEMOCRAT7]

24. That is touching, Thank you for your post.

Thank you for the reminder to "take in the precious moment" when I vote. This is a very special moment in time.