Southern California turns out to vote: undeterred by rain and long lines
Voting lines stretch across damp parking lots and down city blocks at some precincts. Election officials recommend voting between 9 and 11 a.m. or 1 and 4 p.m. to avoid peak crowds.
Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times
As early-morning rain gave way to blue skies, undeterred voters throughout Southern California converged on their polling places -- some standing in lines 300 people deep -- to cast their ballots in a historic election for either the first African American president or the first female vice president.
At many precincts, the lines stretched across damp parking lots and down city blocks; as the morning rush wore on, crowds grew. At the Eagle Rock Covenant Church, cars circled for blocks looking for parking. At the Valencia High School polling place, voters walked a quarter mile to reach their polling place. And in a quintessiental L.A. scene, more than 100 people stood in line at the Venice Beach Lifegaurd Station, just a few steps from the Pacific Ocean, to cast their ballot.
For many, this election seemed different. Special.
Mark Lescroart, a neuroscience grad student at USC, stepped outside his Silver Lake home early this morning, raised his camera to the horizon and snapped a photo of the sunrise. He wanted to immortalize the first light of what he hoped would be a new era: "It felt like history to me."
At the Allesandro School on Riverside Drive, where he voted for Barack Obama, he also took pictures of his voter's guide and a sign that announced in six languages the location of the polling place.
"Bush's presidency sort of coincided with my political awakening," he said, noting that he cast his first vote in 2000. "It's been pretty awful and today, this is something to be happy about."
Lines at polling places in predominantly African American neighborhoods were particularly long as generations of voters arrived, many bringing their children and grandchildren with them to witness the event.
At the Audubon Middle School in Baldwin Hills, where more than 300 people had lined up to vote, Michelle Ellison, 47, waited with her 5-year-old grandson Dilan. "I want him to understand this is history being made," she said. "It's beautiful."
In Inglewood, voters began standing in line by 5 a.m. Bruce Williams, 56, said he flew home from his job in Virginia to make sure his vote counted. He worried his absentee ballot might get lost and cause Obama to lose the presidency. Alice Williams said she did not want to vote early either. "People fought for me to wait in this line," she said. "I'm voting."
