Euphoria grips local supporters
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"Historic," "euphoric," "momentous" were some of the words people in the Valley used to describe Election Day.
"Never in my life have I been so excited," said Mohammad Idrees, a 67-year-old native of Pakistan. "I told my son who is 7 years old, #When you grow up you will remember this night. You will say I saw the USA change.'"
Electing "a non-white person president," Idrees said, "shows the world that really color doesn't matter much."
Idrees was at U.S. Rep. John Olver's victory party at the Hickory Ridge Country Club in Amherst, when a great cheer went up at about 9:30 p.m. at the news that Barack Obama had prevailed in Ohio.
"It's over," the newly re-elected congressman said, before he continued outlining what Congress could do under an Obama administration. There would be health care reform, more effective regulation and a chance to meaningfully address climate change.
Obama won in every Hampshire County community - and by significant margins in many. Pelham voters went the biggest for Obama, giving him 85 percent of votes cast, followed closely by Leverett, Shutesbury and Northampton.
Around 10 p.m., Sujari Reddy was trying to get inside the Paradise City Bar and Grill in Northampton to meet her friends, but an overflow crowd of dozens had spilled unto the sidewalk, where a server walked around with a plate of hors d'oeuvres as cars driving by honked their horns. Reddy wasn't even a fervent Obama supporter. "I don't agree with all of his policy decisions. I'm more afraid of the consequences if he didn't win."
Still, "In spite of myself, it does feel like something," Reddy said. "It feels momentous."
All day long, local Obama supporters had expressed cautious optimism their candidate would win.
"The anticipation is almost more than I can bear; I think it's going to be a close race," Ann Collette, of Amherst, an elementary school teacher in Whately, said shortly before polls closed at 8 p.m. "It's so monumental. Who wins it vastly changes the future of the country, the direction that it goes in and everything that happens. I remember feeling that way when Bush was elected."
What made the election so historic, is that the country was on the verge of electing an African-American man president, Collette said. "If this country votes for him, it says a lot about this country."
Carol Johnson of Amherst described the mood among the people she knows as "euphoric." Some of them were planning to take today off to celebrate.
"I have finally the great pleasure of voting for a candidate I really believe in," said Anna Kelly of Northern Avenue in Northampton, who voted for Obama. "It's not the lesser of two evils, it's better this time."
Kelly came to the senior center with her partner, Danielle Kelly, their daughter Ada and their dog Joey. The couple said "Obama" was their daughter's third or fourth word.
Teary ballot
There seemed to be heightened emotion with this presidential vote.
Amherst resident Ann Vexler said she cried as she cast her ballot for Barack Obama at the Crocker Farm School. "I always feel patriotic on Election Day, but I've never gotten emotional before," she said.
What moved her most, she said, was standing behind a young mother in line and hearing the woman explain to her child the momentous nature of the election, that she would be able to tell her grandchildren that she was with her mother in the voting booth when Obama was elected president. "I go into my booth with tears streaming down my face," said Vexler.
Voters who favored McCain seemed less excited than Obama supporters, well before the results were known.
"It's just another election," said Rich Hall, of Pelham, a businessman and town firefighter, who was a poll worker in Amherst. "If either wins, that's fine, you know, even though I'm a registered Republican. Bush can't do anything because he's basically a lame duck president. You just have to hope until the new one comes in hopefully he can stimulate the economy and get things back on track."
"Oh God, yeah, of course that's true that Obama supporters are more excited," Amherst businessman Larry Kelley agreed. "Obama has personalty, style, charisma. I don't think anyone would describe McCain has having charisma." But Kelley trusts McCain. "That's what I think about these days - my wife and two kids - and he's got the experience."
Comparisons with the election of John F. Kennedy abounded.
"It's like when Kennedy ran and he got all the young people excited. He's got the vision. Or like with FDR when people really were concerned about the country," said Alison Leuchtenburg, a UMass student watching the returns with her fellow "gamers" at World Apart Games, on North Pleasant Street in Amherst.
"This is a historical event not just because he's the first black person, but because he's the youngest," said gamer Adam Persons of Amherst.
Terry Franklin of Amherst, who joined them at World Apart, said he voted for Libertarian Bob Barr for president. He was mainly interested in the ballot questions. "The presidential stuff - that's not really contested in Massachusetts," he said. "I haven't paid much attention to that."
Turnout strong
Lines had formed outside polls early in the morning fog in some towns, with some voters opting to go their polling places an hour or so before they opened. Later in the day seemed to be a better bet for getting in and out quickly.
University of Massachusetts students arrived by the busload all day at the Bangs Community Center in Amherst, which houses Precincts 4, 5 and 10.
For many of the students it was the first time they have voted, among them Eli Nunes, 18, who cast an absentee vote in his hometown of Swampscott last week. He has been a volunteer with MASSPIRG, which set up a table outside the community center to help any students having problems with their registration.
Most people were able to vote, Nunes said, although there was some confusion about where some people had registered.
Yasmin Abbyad, a UMass junior from New Orleans, was also working for MASSPIRG, her third year working with the public interest research group.
"The fact that we got to work on this election is really, really exciting," Abbyad said.
"There are all these gender, race and minority issues that campuses are really involved with. It applies to the issues we actually care about."
Nunes thinks the excitement "grew out of the anger" over President Bush, stoked by cartoons, television shows, Internet sites. "It all kind of morphed into excitement about this election - with Obama who's pledging with all his heart not to be like Bush," Nunes said.
Nancy Farber, director of the Cushman Scott Children's Center was selling baked goods outside the polls to benefit the North Amherst children's center. They had made about $500, she estimated.
"I was amazed at how many voters there are. I saw people taking pictures they were so excited to be voting for the first time," she said. "People seem to be so thrilled to be making part of history." Some people thought they got a free cookie for voting.
MASSPIRG organizers Tracie Konopinski and Coby Kalter pored over voting registration records on a laptop computer, hooked up to an electrical outlet at Rao's, a coffee house next to the community center.
Konopinski was looking forward to going to the "Choose or Lose Jamboree" at the Blue Wall at UMass after the polls closed.
"People are talking about it, saying #I'm totally going to that, watching the numbers,'" she said. She had planned to bring a sleeping bag she was so tired. A Northampton resident, Konopinski, 26, has been working for months on the election, registering voters in Massachusetts and other states.
After the election, it's back to MASSPIRG's perennial issues - climate change, water quality etc. "There's still lots of work to be done. It doesn't end here," Konopinski said. "Regardless of who is in office, there's still a lot of change that has to happen. Not all of our problems are going to be solved. We can't kick back."
