Washington casts 11 electoral votes for Obama

Washington's 11 electoral votes were cast for President-elect Barack Obama on Monday, with cheers from a small crowd and stirring personal stories from the people picked to officially seal the Democratic ticket's victory here.

The 11 electors, chosen by fellow Democratic Party activists and representing all corners of the state, unanimously voted for Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden during a midday ceremony at the Capitol. The Democratic ticket won the state's popular vote last month with about 58 percent.

A few dozen people filled the ornate state reception room to watch Washington's vote in the Electoral College, a largely ceremonial function that culminates with Congress' confirmation of Obama's win during a joint session next month.

The chairwoman of Washington's 11 electoral voters, Lesley Ahmed of Seattle, recalled the discrimination she sometimes faced as a Muslim after 9/11. To now participate in the presidential electoral process, Ahmed said, was a reaffirmation of the American ideal.

"Being an elector has really given me back my country, and I am just terribly honored," she said.

Another elector, Kristine Fallstone of Dupont, said she also was representing her son, Alex, who served in Iraq and was killed during a training exercise at Fort Lewis in 2005.

"When he was in Iraq, I asked him how would he feel if I was protesting the war," Fallstone said after the vote. "He said, 'Mom, I'm a soldier because I want to be sure we continue to have the rights that we have.'"

Among those watching the event was James Yee of Olympia, a Muslim former Army chaplain at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp who was detained for 76 days and then cleared in an espionage probe.

"The whole election itself for me was emotional, because Barack Obama was someone who was campaigning on closing Guantanamo Bay and ending torture," Yee said. "And now, I am active in trying to hold his feet to his promises."

Yee also said it was significant that two of Washington's electors were Muslim-Americans.

"It's a strong statement that we're hopefully moving in the direction where people will be once again free to express their constitutional right to religious freedom," said Yee, who was an Obama delegate at the Democratic National Convention.

One elector, Calvin Edwards of Spanaway, addressed the flood of messages that electors said they received from people questioning Obama's citizenship, suggesting that he not be certified president.

"It's important for us to be here to do what you wanted" as voters, Edwards said to the audience.

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court again turned down a challenge to Obama's eligibility based on his citizenship.

Obama was born in Hawaii. But the rejected case, like another appeal turned away last week, argued that since Obama had dual nationality at birth - his mother was American, his Kenyan father a British subject - he could not possibly be a "natural born citizen."

Also on Monday, state lawmakers opposed to the Electoral College system said they would sponsor a bill that seeks to elect the president based on the popular vote alone.

Rep. Roger Goodman, D-Kirkland, said he thinks the Electoral College violates the principle of "one person, one vote."

"It seems like a cute artifact of history, but this is real. It has the force of law," Goodman said.