DEARBORN — Ibtisam Ahmed, 38, voted for the first time on Tuesday. She became a U.S. citizen two years ago. She’s been in the country for 18 years.
“I felt like I was going to cry. I felt that I could actually do something,” she said after voting.

Ibtisam Ahmed, 38, enters her ballot for the first time on Tuesday at Woodworth Elementary School in Dearborn as poll worker Mohamad Saleh looks on. PHOTO: Khalil AlHajal/TAAN

She said she’s yearned for the right to vote during past presidential elections, and was overcome with emotion as she filled out her ballot at Woodworth Middle School in Dearborn.
Speaking in Arabic, Ahmed said she voted for President-elect Barack Obama, because he’s a Democrat and because she believes he can bring solutions to “all these problems — for our children.”

“God willing, everything will turn out well,” she said.

Michigan voters turned out at the polls in record numbers, topping 5 million for the first time in history.

Dearborn, which boasts the nation’s highest concentration of Arab Americans, was no exception. A whopping 69.61 percent of registered voters in the city cast ballots, many of them enthusiastically expressing hope and demanding change as they reveled in the opportunity to take part in the process that elected the first African American in history to serve as Commander in Chief.

Adwoa Akpan, 28 another first time voter, came to the U.S. from Ghana four years ago. Outside the Woodworth polling station, Akpan said she voted for Obama with her father, an African American who died in May, in mind.

“He just passed and he didn’t believe this would happen. He couldn’t wait to see this… I was real sad that he couldn’t see [Obama become the first black president].”

Beyond the historical significance, she said the cost of college tuition and health insurance motivated her further to vote for the Democrat.

A health services student at the University of Detroit-Mercy, Akpan said she voted “yes” on both state proposals, to legalize medical marijuana use and expand stem cell research, both of which passed.

“I feel like my voice is going to be heard,” she said.

Carrie Smith, a political science student at the University of Michigan, Dearborn, turned 21 on Tuesday.

Obama was elected on her birthday.

Like Obama, Smith is half black, half white.

“I’m in shock,” she said, after Obama was announced the winner by news outlets. “Shocked and so excited and happy. I think this is real change. I was always worried. I had no faith in Americans electing a black president.”

University of Michigan-Dearborn students celebrate during a post-election celebration on campus after President-elect Barack Obama was announced the winner by news outlets Tuesday night.                                       PHOTO: Khalil AlHajal/TAAN

She said she believes the election represents the beginning of better race relations in the country.
“Anything is possible, we can achieve anything,” she said.

She also believes Obama can best tackle domestic and foreign policy crises.

“We haven’t had a Democrat in a long time,” she said. “Iraq’s not an easy solution… but he’ll respect the international community.”

Smith organized a bipartisan election day party at the university as president of the campus political science club.

Looking across the room at a group of dejected college Republicans, Smith said she got no satisfaction in seeing their disappointment.

She said she hopes Obama will show a genuine bipartisan spirit as president.

“I hope they don’t feel how Democrats have felt with Bush. I hope we can come together. We’re all Americans.”

A visibly upset Bryan Daniels, 23, of the heartbroken group of college Republicans at the party, said he has no faith that Obama will make a good president.

A disappointed group of college Republicans at the University of Michigan-Dearborn smash a paper maché donkey symbolizing the Democratic Party during a post-election party on campus Tuesday night.       PHOTO: Tarik Abdal Wahid/TAAN

“I’m pretty upset. With all the money he’s going spend… I don’t think he’s a good candidate. I just hope in four years we can make a comeback,” he said.
But at the polls in Dearborn, Arab Americans showed overwhelming support for Obama.

“We need some change,” said Abbas Bazzi, 41, after voting in the 16th precinct. “We haven’t seen — ever — any minority taking such a high position.”

Like many Arab Americans in the city, who swarmed the polls in numbers never seen before, Bazzi showed enthusiasm for candidates in local elections, too.

He said he voted for Aimee Blackburn for Board of Education.

“She’s very active in the community. You see her during the elections and after the elections,” he said.

At Salina Elementary School in Dearborn’s south end, where voting booths were filled with mostly Yemeni Americans, election workers had trouble adjusting to the larger crowds.

“It’s unbelievable. There’s no comparison,” said precinct 21 chairman Robert Daugherty about the turnout compared to previous elections he’s worked.

There were reports of voters there being turned away, rather than shown which precinct to go to, when their names were not found on lists.

“Because of the sheer number of people, this line was backing into that line,” said Daugherty about trouble the workers had guiding people early in the day.

But by the afternoon, they reorganized the division between lines for precincts 20 and 21, and very few other problems were reported.

Outside the school, Ali Baleed Almaklani, of the Yemeni American Benevolent Association, said he was immensely proud of the huge turnout.

“This year is better than any other year,” he said. “This is very inspiring to see the Arab American community vote, even if the ones I’m voting for don’t make it.”

He said that with the Arab American Political Action Committee and Yemeni American Political Action Committee endorsing the same candidates, the community voted almost entirely as a bloc, the only exception being a judicial race for 19th District Court, in which both groups endorsed incumbent Mark Somers but challenger Candyce Abbatt reached a significant number of Arab Americans.

“Otherwise, we’re all in unification,” Almaklani said.

Somers won by 228 votes. The Salina precincts posted 240 more votes for Somers than for Abbatt.

Jacklin Zeidan, 44, who campaigned for the AAPAC slate outside McDonald Elementary School, said the large turnout is a display of progress among Arab Americans.

“I love it. It’s such a great feeling,” she said. “I haven’t seen this in a long time. It’s the great Arab schlep. Obama has really just brought people out like crazy. A lot of older parents are coming in with their kids.”

She said that younger generation Arab Americans, “unafraid and unintimidated by the system,” deserve credit for showing up and dragging family to the polls in huge numbers.

“We need to get our voices out a lot stronger and we’re getting there,” she said.

Voters wait in line at McDonald Elementary School in Dearborn on Tuesday.               PHOTO: Khalil AlHajal/TAAN

Poll workers at Woodworth said that voters were standing in line at 7 a.m., and that some waited up to to three hours for the chance to cast their ballot.
“How many years have I been doing this, and I’ve never seen it like that,” said precinct 16 election worker Helen Kushnir, 85, who has been running polling stations for 25 years.

Hana Altaii, 18, who placed her first ever vote for Obama, loved being a part of history.

“It’s pretty cool because a girl is running for vice president and a black man for president,” she said.

She chose Obama because “it seems like John McCain is following in Bush’s footsteps.”

She said her main issue of concern is “pulling out of Iraq, because — what are we doing there?”

“If I ever tell my kids to go vote, I get to tell them that I got to vote for the first black president,” she said.

Voter Nawal Hmad, 39, fills out her ballot at McDonald Elementary School in Dearborn on Tuesday, as her daughter, Maysem Al-Hasson, 8, watches. Hmad, like most Arab Americans in Dearborn, voted for President-elect Barack Obama.                                                    PHOTO: Khalil AlHajal/TAAN

Like nearly every voter interviewed at the east and south Dearborn precincts, Khaled Odeh, 42, a Palestinian American, also chose Obama.
“His policies are open to the world,” he said. “And he’s young. He can inspire the youth. McCain is 72 years old.”

Odeh also made it a point to say he voted for Mary Lane for school board.

“She takes care of our kids,” he said.

Lane made it onto the board with 24.93 percent of the vote.

Odeh’s wife, Hana Odeh, 31, another first time voter, also cast her ballot for Obama.

“He’s not a man of war… I believe that we can make a change,” she said.

Seventy-four year-old voter Semiya Williams, as she left the McDonald polling location, said she voted for Obama “not just for us (Arab Americans), for the people.”

“He’s better for the country and for the people,” she said.

Ali Almflahi, 52, a Yemeni American, said in Arabic that he was proud to take part in the democratic process. He voted, along with his wife, daughter and mother-in-law at McDonald, casting votes for Obama.

He said the war in Iraq was the family’s top issue.