Three elections. A new president. Same-sex marriage rights granted and taken away. It's been quite a year. And the Citizen Voices contributors have blogged their way through it all with great aplomb and candor.

Now that the election is over, it's time to say farewell to the Citizen Voices blog. I'm sad to see this project laid to rest.  We started this blog because we wanted to see the election from your perspectives. We wanted to get away from the usual punditry, and find out what you, the public, were thinking about the elections.

I am honored to have worked with our seven "Citizen Voices": Alma, Candace, Chris, Chuck, Jessica, Steven and Trina. I thank these talented and passionate writers for their time, dedication, enthusiasm and honesty. And I thank you, the community of readers and commenters, for participating in our experiment in civic dialogue. We love that many of you have voiced your opinions as actively as our regular bloggers to become part of the Citizen Voices dialogue. (Speaking of which - if you haven't taken our survey yet, please do so. We'd love to hear from you. And the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's Public Media Innovation Fund, which helped pay for the project, wants to know what you thought of our little experiment in online democracy.)

We set out to learn how to bring together diverse opinions in an interesting and engaging way. We think we succeeded. So much, that we plan to do this again. Have ideas for topics? Leave a comment below. Otherwise, check back with us for our next iteration of "citizen journalism" in the coming months.  

What can I say about the election?  The candidate I (reluctantly) voted for in the Presidential race won.  The majority of the people of California then turned away from his message of change and hope and voted to make me an official second-class citizen of my native state. Overall, I think the United States did well, and California will eventually recover from this stain on its reputation as a social and cultural leader.

Happy?  Not really.  Moving on though.  As I posted elsewhere before the election, it had become apparent that Proposition 8 wasn't going to end debate on marriage equality on November 4.  I'm convinced the battle will continue, both in California and elsewhere, and marriage equality will eventually win out.  

I will admit to a fit of schadenfreude giggles at seeing that Alaska re-elected convicted Republican Senator Ted Stevens to office.  Call it a guilty pleasure it you will, but it felt good.

On that note, I'll leave you with some other thoughts on the recent electoral results: Kyle Cummings, Michael McAllister, and Joe Crawford. All three are unique Californians that add plenty to the diversity of opinion (and styles) on the internet and are well worth a few minutes of your time.

The November end of this year's presidential and local elections has taught me that playing well with others is a lesson worth learning, both in preschool and in politics.  And while we make progress, more political, ideological, and even spiritual struggles motivate voters into activism. 

The bad news is one election cycle will not resolve every one of the state and country's problems.  And the good news is, with rare exception, the result of one election puts a semi-colon at the end of issues, not a period.  Maybe the nomination of Barack Obama places an exclamation mark at the end of this historic presidential race.  But in another four years, Democrats and bridge-builders everywhere may end that nomination process with a question mark.  We will have to wait and see. 

The point is the work of equality and democracy beckon, and lessons remain to be learned from this incredible, historic season.

As national politics go, our nation's leaders should understand the Bush-era lessons:  the White House should not equally jeopardize the nation's infrastructure and the country's safety by waging ill begotten wars in foreign nations, while trashing the Constitution, opening a heinous torture chamber, turning its back on a nation's city during crisis, and lastly, violating the public's trust by decimating the economy.

Histories will of course be written as to how the Obama Presidency was culturally possible. I look to my own feelings for answers.  He won my vote early, but when did he capture my heart? I've voted for plenty of politicians and I really liked some of them - but this is different.  I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel something close to love for Obama and his family.  It's more than slightly irrational. Symbolism is already threatening to swamp the man and I'm aware of this - but I just can't quit loving the guy, the moment and the hope he represents.  And so, as I blog my way out the door here at KPBS it's time for some soul searching...

(Photo by Tim Eckel)
I woke up this morning with a joy hangover.  Thirty- six hours of continuous smiling has taken its toll.

The American voters have spoken and their choice is Barack Obama.  All the struggle, all the marches, all the legislation has finally brought us to this day.

When the election was called at 8pm, Pacific Standard Time, I felt the tears begin to fall, and at the same moment, began receiving emails from all over the country and abroad, just a few words from each, but I marveled at the power to share this moment with long lost friends, some not seen since the late '60s.  All these years later we could find one another and say, "Yes."

My daughters called me from New York, laughing and crying, and held their cell phones up so I could hear the joyous outcry. As we talked, they described a gospel choir spilling out of a church into the streets of Brooklyn, snaking into the cheering throngs.  

Dear President-Elect Obama,

Congratulations on being named the next president of the United States. Yours was a well-run campaign, aided by the help of countless passionate supporters. You successfully captured the heart of the American people, currently so eager for the change and hope that they believe you can bring. You have already brought about one change: you will go down in history books as our first African-American president. It is yet to be seen what other changes will come with an Obama administration.

To that end, in spite of a long campaign in which you fought hard to reach the White House, the real challenge will begin in January when you take office. You have a healthy ego right now; this is understandable given your incredible victory. But despite becoming (arguably) the most powerful man in the world, yours is a position that requires the humility of service. You will be the ultimate representative; not representing a district or a state, but representing and serving an entire nation. With great power comes great responsibility, and you have a responsibility not only to your supporters and those of like minds, but also to the (nearly) half of the country that was not convinced. There are blue skies over my home state and yours, but a great part of this nation remains bathed in red.

At the City Heights polling place where I dropped off my absentee ballot, the line of a dozen or so residents waiting to vote gave me an honest thrill. This November 4th reminded me of an exciting New Year's Day, the air thick with expectation and resolve.  The anticipation of knowing Bush and his crew are finally out of office was so reassuring that it overrides any nagging fears about trickery and betrayal at the polls.  I know that Bush can't win another term.  I also know that my neighbors in Dist. 3, and from all over the city, state and country, turned out in droves facing inclement weather and waiting in queues.

This feels tremendous.  And if after all this voting, the presidential election turns out favoring the other guy... well, that will bring reality crashing in, no doubt. But when people get involved in the process it never gets old. 

Today, the New Year is young and hope burns bright while exit polls show yet another close presidential race.  With anxiety tamped down, I patiently watch the day go by as it becomes the next four years.

I've had woodpecker fever all week. I've been putting knuckles through Ikea tabletops for days. If you mention Obama, I'm looking to knock some wood. All signs look good, the polls are positive and - knock, knock, knock - Yes We Can!

I bubbled in Obama this morning in a rainy La Jolla garage and plan on holing up in an undisclosed bookstore where the only thing more plentiful than wood to knock on is Pabst Blue Ribbon to knock back.

More than an Obama victory though, I'm looking forward to getting the United States of America and the Constitution back. No gloating and no nose rubbing - just a deep breath before the real work begins. Tomorrow, there might be those on the right who will feel a dread and pit of the stomach sickness that many of us felt following George W. Bush's elections. That unfortunate president demanded eight years of nausea - but I think things will turn out differently for those soured by an Obama victory tonight. Barack Obama has delivered a consistent and insistent message of unity - echoing Lincoln's "House Divided" speech from the moment he announced his candidacy. The electoral map may be re-written tonight, the suffocating red state/blue state mentality will give way to the sort of America that Walt Whitman sang about.

Speaking of Whitman, I hope he, Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King are around somewhere to watch the returns come rolling in tonight. Tomorrow it's back to Whitman's America:

Whoever you are, to you endless announcements!

Daughter of the lands did you wait for your poet?
Did you wait for one with a flowing mouth and indicative hand?
Toward the male of the States, and toward the female of the States,
Exulting words, words to Democracy's lands.

Interlink'd, food-yielding lands!
Land of coal and iron! land of gold! land of cotton, sugar, rice!
Land of wheat, beef, pork! land of wool and hemp! land of the apple
and the grape!
Land of the pastoral plains, the grass-fields of the world! land of
those sweet-air'd interminable plateaus!
Land of the herd, the garden, the healthy house of adobie!
Lands where the north-west Columbia winds, and where the south-west
Colorado winds!
Land of the eastern Chesapeake! land of the Delaware!
Land of Ontario, Erie, Huron, Michigan!
Land of the Old Thirteen! Massachusetts land! land of Vermont and
Connecticut!
Land of the ocean shores! land of sierras and peaks!
Land of boatmen and sailors! fishermen's land!
Inextricable lands! the clutch'd together! the passionate ones!
The side by side! the elder and younger brothers! the bony-limb'd!
The great women's land! the feminine! the experienced sisters and
the inexperienced sisters!
Far breath'd land! Arctic braced! Mexican breez'd! the diverse! the
compact!
The Pennsylvanian! the Virginian! the double Carolinian!
O all and each well-loved by me! my intrepid nations! O I at any
rate include you all with perfect love!
I cannot be discharged from you! not from one any sooner than
another!
O death! O for all that, I am yet of you unseen this hour with
irrepressible love,
Walking New England, a friend, a traveler,
Splashing my bare feet in the edge of the summer ripples on
Paumanok's sands,
Crossing the prairies, dwelling again in Chicago, dwelling in every
town,
Observing shows, births, improvements, structures, arts,
Listening to orators and oratresses in public halls,
Of and through the States as during life, each man and woman my
neighbor,
The Louisianian, the Georgian, as near to me, and I as near to him
and her,
The Mississippian and Arkansian yet with me, and I yet with any of
them,
Yet upon the plains west of the spinal river, yet in my house of
adobie,
Yet returning eastward, yet in the Seaside State or in Maryland,
Yet Kanadian cheerily braving the winter, the snow and ice welcome
to me,
Yet a true son either of Maine or of the Granite State, or the
Narragansett Bay State, or the Empire State,
Yet sailing to other shores to annex the same, yet welcoming every
new brother,
Hereby applying these leaves to the new ones from the hour they
unite with the old ones,
Coming among the new ones myself to be their companion and equal,
coming personally to you now,
Enjoining you to acts, characters, spectacles, with me.

- from Starting From Paumanok in Leaves of Grass

I have that moment of panic when the poll worker can't find my name... It happens every time and it always ignites a flash of paranoia... Could I have somehow screwed up and not registered correctly? 

OK, there it is... I'm okay... I get to cast my vote. 

I take my ballot to the cardboard booth and realize that I have a PAPER ballot. I haven't voted on a paper ballot in years and it gives me a primitive sense of control. I'm not at the mercy of any electronic malfunction or punchcards with their evil little tabs. A calm descends on me as I mark concise ovals next to my choices. 

On the way home my husband says he is relieved to have exercised his choice... even feels a reduction of rage over the last eight years.  Me too, I say.

Then I get home and read about all the other states that are having voting problems, machine glitches, cold weather, long lines.  Anxiety crashes over me and I reach for the leftover Halloween candy. It's only 7:46 am and I've already polished off a Snickers, an Almond Joy, a Jolly Roger and a Baby Ruth. Thankfully they are only miniatures, but I still think it's going to be a very long day.

Election Day's all about the fuzzy slippers this time around.  I actually voted last week, so today I'm at my desk and watching the rain through the office window while my feet stay dry and warm .  It's not that I'm not doing anything election-related today - the husband and I placed a few more No on 8 signs around the neighborhood while we walked the dog this morning, and I'll spend most of the day waiting for and watching returns.  

I've been voting for more than 25 years now, and have supported candidates, cheered at rallies, monitored overseas elections and even worked a polling station here in California, but I've never been as emotionally invested in an election as I am in this one.  

The candidates aren't that important to me this time around, but when a bunch of out-of-state money can come here and try and insert decidedly un-Californian values into the California constitution, it bothers me. That a bunch of people can come here and and try to take away my rights and my husband's rights and the rights of thousands of other Californians bothers me.  

I'm optimistic that Californians will see through the fearmongering and keep California as a leader in civil rights for all citizens.  I have to be - I know that Californians are better than this.  That's why I vote.