SKOKIE, Ill. — Stepping away from a cardboard ballot box, Ashak Toma proudly waved his right index finger in the air.
The tip was still damp with purple-blue ink -- a mark by election monitors that proved the 58-year-old Iraqi had just taken part in his country's first competitive election in more than 50 years.
"I have dreamed of this day for years," said Toma, who came to Illinois from the Basra area last year after insurgents destroyed his liquor distribution business and threatened his family.
On the first of three days of voting, scores of Iraqis arrived at polling stations here and in nearby Rosemont, Ill., as well as others in Orange County, Calif., suburban Detroit, Nashville and New Carrollton, Md.
Immigrants also are able to vote in 13 other countries before the polls open in Iraq this weekend.
"I am born again. This is my birthday," said Sadiq Wohali, a soccer coach from Baghdad's Sadr City who fled to England in 1998. "This is the birth of the Iraqi state."
At the Wembley Conference Centre in London, one elderly voter in a cloth hat stood outside Friday, proclaiming his happiness, as women in brightly colored Iraqi clothing voiced their approval.
Mohammed Hilli, a 26-year-old pharmacist who left Iraq at age 2, said the voting represented a fundamental step to a better life in his homeland. "There is no other way that will give us a government and give people their rights and essential services -- like water and electricity," Hilli said.
That sentiment was shared by voters at the Assyrian National Council of Illinois Community Center in Skokie on Friday morning. By the time the police dogs and metal detectors arrived, there was already a small cluster of voters gathered in the parking lot.
Once cleared by security, women in dark robes mingled in the hallways with families and toddlers in snowsuits. They were led to a series of rooms, where election workers checked their passports and walked them through the voting process.
"We thought people would stay away because it's a workday, but we've seen steady and heavy traffic all day," said Kathleen Houlihan with the International Organization for Migration, the nongovernmental group in Geneva organizing the expatriate election.
About 11% of an estimated 240,000 people in the U.S. eligible to vote in the Iraqi election had registered by last week's deadline. And many who turned out Friday had gone to great lengths to cast their ballots.
