It wasn't Chicago's Grant Park, but McDaniel College's Memorial Plaza worked just fine for students who celebrated the presidential election on Tuesday night.

"Yes we can! Yes we can!" students shouted in unison as air horns blared.

About 100 students gathered after 11 p.m. on the plaza in front of Hoover Library to mark Barack Obama's election as the first black president of the United States.

"There's been a buzz around campus to do this," said Evan Ticknol, 20 of Chicago, who photographed the revelry.

The enthusiasm was for the outcome, to be sure, but also for the process. For most of the voters at McDaniel, having any voice in a presidential election was a completely new experience.

Rachel Held, 20, said a student e-mail had circulated throughout the campus urging people to go out and celebrate on the plaza -- regardless of whether Obama or Sen. John McCain won.

As the midnight hour approached, Held stood beside friends Sarah Ballaw, 20, of Westminster and Eleanore Nagle, 20, of Gaithersburg, and took in the historic moment.

"This is a huge event," Ballaw said, "and we wanted to be a part of it together."

Across Carroll County, though in a somewhat more subdued atmosphere, the sense of history and excitement was also evident -- even among a different demographic.

In a presidential race that seemed at times to divide between old and new, youth and senior, the population of Fairhaven Retirement Community in Sykesville was no less pumped about Election Day.

"I think there has been more interest in this election than ... I can't even think how far back," said Yerby Holman, a 93-year-old former personnel director for the Western Maryland Railroad.

If anyone has his ear to the ground, it's Holman, who served on Fairhaven's original board of directors and has lived there with his wife, Emily, 92, for 20 years.

Throughout the complex on Tuesday, residents were bustling around to vote. The Sykesville facility serves as its own voting precinct; mainly for residents, though some neighbors can vote there as well.

Jean Remmell, a former resident of the Eastern Shore, didn't care to reveal who he voted for. But he felt that sense of urgency about the Nov. 4 election.

"I think it is very important, because there are some critical issues involved," Remmell said. "I think our country is in such a condition that we need people with morality in high office.

"The election could go either way," he said in the mid-afternoon. "Whichever way it goes, it's the will of the people. So be it."

First time, every time

On Tuesday evening, a group of students at McDaniel sat in the college's Decker Auditorium to watch the election unfold.

A viewing party, hosted by McDaniel's College Democrats Club and student-run radio station WMCR, featured coverage of the major news channels on a screen and a running tally of electoral votes.

John Maddrey, 19, of Silver Spring, viewed results from the Associated Press, Google, Fox News, MSNBC and Yahoo, and kept a tally on a customizable map on RealClearPolitics.com.

Maddrey recalled that he had been just as excited eight years ago, in 2000 -- long before he could vote.

"I just remember staying up as a kid with my family watching the election results," he said. "I remember not going to school the next day because of the 2000 election."

This election was also a memorable one. Maddrey drove to Silver Spring to cast his ballot and waited three hours to vote.

Andrew Rauch, 19, of Grand Junction, Colo., co-hosts "Dr. Maddrey and Greenspan" with Maddrey on the campus radio station, and said he thinks a presidential election is huge for those participating for the first time.

"You got a lot of people our age who have never voted in an election and now going out to vote," he said. "Before there was more voter apathy and young people thought, 'People will go out and vote and (cancel out) our votes.' "

Voting rites

The folks at Fairhaven, most of whom have been voting all their lives, certainly don't take that franchise for granted.

Holman, who writes for the community's monthly newsletter and helps put together news for an in-house TV channel, has organized political forums featuring candidates for both county and state offices.

"It's a highly educated group here; there are very few without at least a college education," said Holman. "It's also a very diverse group. ... That's the nice thing about it; there are people from so many different backgrounds here."

Norma Bakke, a two-year resident at Fairhaven, said she was aware of at least a few political discussions at Fairhaven that crossed the line to become arguments.

"Some people got pretty riled," she said.

Cal Faulkner, a retired Baltimore City school official who lives at Fairhaven with his wife Alice, jokingly said he was a model of diplomacy when it came to discussing the election.

"I was helping a neighbor vote earlier today and this other neighbor came up to me and grabbed my sleeve and asked me very insistently, 'Who you gonna vote for?' " he recalled with a burst of laughter.

When the neighbor insisted that Faulkner reveal his choice, he played a little politics himself.

"I said, 'Who did you want me to vote for?' he said. "When she told me, I was relieved to find that we were on the same page ... because she lets us use one of her parking spaces, and I sure didn't want to lose that parking space!"

Lifelong Democrat Stella Werner Allison, 79, freely admits her political affiliation. She also notes that her mother served as president of the Montgomery County Council.

"She was the first president of a local governmental body in the state of Maryland," she said proudly. "And two generations back, my grandfather was a state senator."

"I was handing out political pamphlets before I was old enough to read them," she said. "I've never missed a single election."

Allison admitted that during this political season she, at times, has worn her partisanship a little too boldly on her sleeve.

"But I've tried not to get too boisterous," she said with a grin. "I realize this is McCain country out here, but that's fine just as long as you take the time to vote for someone."

A time for history

For many voters at McDaniel, that choice of "someone" guided their choice. The twenty-something vote was sought-after by Obama with everything from advertisements on Facebook to video games.

It worked -- Obama captured the votes of 75 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds in Maryland and 68 percent nationwide, according to Baltimore Sun exit polls.

Trevor Crest, 18, a McDaniel student from Baltimore, said he was happy that his first vote in a presidential election was a memorable one. As a black male, he said Obama's presidential run meant a lot to him in a very personal way.

"To get to that level and being taken seriously," he said, "is very special to young African American males."

The election energized and empowered a new generation of voters, but members of the 70-and-over set shared their grandsons' and granddaughters' passion as well.

Holman supported Obama, but said one of his arguments against McCain was shot down quickly ... by the younger generation.

"One of our young staff members asked me the other day who I was voting for, and I told her, 'I think McCain is too old.' " he said.

"She just looked at me sternly and said, 'Look who's talking!' "

Amid a heavy turnout of young, old, black, white, male, female and every other demographic, Stefanie Quintero, 20, of Bowie said she thinks Maryland voters, at least her peers, came out in force with the goal of selecting a president.

Other issues, such as slots and early voting, flew under the radar for her peers, she said.

"Compared to issues like the economy, abortion rights, the Iraq war and health care, those issues just don't seem as important," said Quintero. Nevertheless, she voted against slots and for early voting, she said.

Quintero served as an election judge in Manchester, and was among more than 70 McDaniel students who volunteered at Carroll polls.

At the end of the night McDaniel College Democrats Club President Patrick Johnson, 20, of Frederick, smiled about the outcome of the election -- and wasn't sure how to react other than that.

To him, the importance of the young vote might have been overstated given the other issues on Americans' minds.

"I think (the young vote) was an aspect," he said, "but I think there was a lot more going on."

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