In the back lobby of Las Moradas apartment building in Humboldt Park, a modest crowd of voters waited comfortably this afternoon for their turn in the polling booth, in sharp contrast to the line of early voters that snaked around the outside of the Humboldt Park Library last Thursday. 

Lakeisha Rogers, a respiratory therapist, says that the voting process went smoothly. “It wasn’t as crowded as I though it would be, so that’s good. They had paper ballots and digital touch screens, and they give you the choice of which to use.” 

Rogers voted for U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Il., because she likes his calm perspective. “That’s what we need in this chaotic world right now.” 

She also voted to return U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Il., based in Springfield, to office. “He’s familiar," she says. "That’s always nice.” 

The mood was light at the polling place.

“I have a red shirt on,” joked Marco Echevarria, “but I voted for Mr. Obama. I feel that we need a change in this country and he will lead us to a new tomorrow.”  

Echevarria, a flight attendant for American Airlines, says that he knew exactly whom he was voting for before entering the voting booth.

“I felt that Dick Durbin had to be re-elected," Echevarria says. "He has done a wonderful job as the Senator for Illinois.

He also voted to re-elect state Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Chicago, who looks out for the Puerto Rican community here in Humboldt Park—my people.”  

Echevarria admits that he voted against the calling for a state constitutional convention because he didn’t know much about it. 

Also in the neighborhood, outside of Puerto Ricans Unidos En Accion on North Division, were DePaul students Nicole Heath and Taylor Capodann, supporters of U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Obama's challenger.

Heath and Capodann were taking a break from helping voters.

The students are volunteers with “Participatory Democracy,” a program through the Cultural Center in Humboldt Park, which aims to assist registered voters in getting to their precinct on Election Day.  

The program recruits students to go door-to-door with a list of registered voters in the neighborhood, even enlisting students with cars to drive local residents to their polling stations, according to the two students.  

“We just wanted to get people out to vote,” says Heath, who voted through a New York absentee ballot. “Our political affiliation doesn’t have anything to do with it.”

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