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Armond Greene has been old enough to vote for a decade. But it took Tuesday’s historic election to get him to register and cast a ballot.
Greene, 28, voted at the Urban League in Fort Wayne’s Hanna Creighton neighborhood, braving long lines for the chance to vote for a candidate who is black, like him, although he said it was Sen. Barack Obama’s policies, not his skin color, that he liked.
“I want some change,” Greene said. “I’m tired of $4-a-gallon gas.”
That change came Tuesday night, as unofficial results just after 11 p.m. showed Obama would become the next president of the United States in a landslide victory.
But not everyone in Indiana embraced the junior senator from Illinois.
Darren Ledgerwood, of Columbia City, said he voted for Sen. John McCain because he is concerned that Obama may be a Muslim or at least may have been associated with that faith when he was younger.
Despite the fact that Obama is a Christian, he has been dogged throughout the campaign by rumors to the contrary.
Ledgerwood was also worried about Obama’s 20-year association with the “pretty radical” church led by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
“It seems they were pretty much haters of white people,” Ledgerwood said about the church on the south side of Chicago.
Although Ledgerwood said Obama’s association with the Muslim faith may only be rumor, another reason McCain got his vote is because Ledgerwood thinks Obama is a socialist.
Jill Haxton, voting at the Knights of Columbus hall on Reed Road in Fort Wayne, said her children made her vote for Obama.
“My children said if you don’t vote for him, we’re going to be very angry,” Haxton said laughing. “I do think he’ll bring about good change.”
John Stoller waited more than an hour Tuesday morning to vote on Fort Wayne’s northeast side. The residential child-care worker said he supported McCain for president mainly because he votes “pro-life.”
“I’m not saying he’s the ideal candidate, but for me he’s the choice of the two,” Stoller said.
He was most impressed with the heavy turnout, saying he has voted for decades and has never seen a line like the one he witnessed Tuesday.
After voting at Thorncreek Township Fire Department in Whitley County, Mark Gradeless, from Columbia City, said he voted for Obama because “we’re all ready for a change there.”
Many voters waited hours to cast a ballot for president – Gradeless said he waited years: When he first heard Obama speak four years ago, he was so impressed he decided he would vote for Obama if he ever ran for president.
Abortion was the determining issue behind the vote cast by Caroline Landon, 37, of Roanoke.
Landon said she would likely vote a split ticket if it weren’t for her concern about the Democratic Party’s stance on abortion rights because Republicans often overlook social issues, and she doesn’t necessarily support big business.
In addition to abortion rights, Landon said other concerns, including the freedom to choose health care and to preserve the right to home school, were behind her choice for McCain as president.
“Though he’s not an ideal candidate for me by any means,” Landon said about McCain. “He’s just less scary.”
It’s the problems with health care that scare Elizabeth Sherman, who voted for Obama at Sonrise at Aboite United Methodist Church.
“His health care stand was the biggest reason,” Sherman said.
By noon in the small town of LaOtto in southeast Noble County, two dozen people waited in line outside LaOtto Wesleyan Church.
Jim Proffitt, 39, walked outside with an “I Voted Today” sticker and the satisfaction of knowing he did his part to keep Indiana red by voting for John McCain.
Proffitt, who works for Steel Dynamics Inc., said his decision came down to the economy.
“You can’t tax your way out of a recession, and that’s what Obama wants to do,” he said.
Journal Gazette reporters Becky Manley, Angela Mapes Turner and Benjamin Lanka contributed to this story.
dstockman@jg.net
