Palin Votes: You Can Go Home Again
WASILLA, AK - Sarah Palin made the long trip home today to vote, telling reporters that she hoped she wakes up tomorrow as vice president-elect.
Palin - having flown all night from Nevada - arrived in Anchorage and drove for an hour to Wasilla, killing time at local haunts until polls opened at 7 am. She waited in her car for five minutes before emerging at Wasilla City Hall to vote with her husband, Todd.
Speaking to reporters afterwards, Palin said she was "optimistic" and "confident."
"Now tomorrow, I hope, I pray, I believe that I'll be able to wake up as vice president elect, and be able to get to work in a transition mode with the president -elect, John McCain," she said. "So anxious to get to work for the American people."
Palin pushed to return home to vote, aides said, even though she had secured an absentee ballot. While in Alaska, she is picking up a large assortment of friends and family, who will travel back with her to Phoenix to join John McCain for the campaign's election night party.
Palin's parents, in-laws and three youngest children are all traveling separately, having campaigned with her in the continental United States in recent days.
Palin's brief sojourn included several pit stops. She went to her favorite coffee house - the second of the morning - greeting friends at Mocha Moose in Wasilla. On the way back to Anchorage, she stopped at a Chevron gas station owned by her sister, which she has often referenced on the campaign trail when discussing small business owners.
While it is assumed Palin voted for herself, she did not say whether she voted for Sen. Ted Stevens, who was convicted last week of ethics violations for accepting gifts, and Rep. Don Young, who is under investigation by the FBI.
"I am also exercising my right to privacy, and I don't have to tell anybody who I vote for, nobody does, and that's really cool about America also," she said.
Palin's return to Alaska ends a two-month campaign that included 132 events in 105 cities and 25 states, campaign aides pointed out Tuesday. They also said she had conducted more than 100 local and national interviews.
Palin ended her five-state tour Monday in Nevada at around midnight local time and flew a little less than two hours to Seattle for refueling. It was then on to Alaska, a three-hour flight. The campaign's early arrival led to a scramble in the dark - the first coffee shop the campaign tried to stop at in Anchorage was closed. With time to kill until polls open, Palin made a brief trek to her Wasilla home.
It had been nearly two months since Palin came to her home state, and the early September chill had been replaced by snow capped trees and a 20 -degree frost. She acknowledged reporters who had come a long distance to cover her vote.
"Hopefully you are enjoying the beautiful weather, the crispness and cleanliness of this most beautiful state," she said. She also noted the election results will be historic, no matter the outcome.
"It's so well for the progress this country is making, and barriers of course being removed and glass ceilings being shattered, again, as the representation on both tickets will show," she said.
Later, at Mocha Moose, Palin reflected a bit on her future if she does not become vice president.
"You know if there is a role in national politics it won't be so much partisan," she said. "My efforts have always been here in the state of Alaska to get everybody to unite and work together to progress this state. It certainly would be a uniter type of role."
(NBC/NJ's MATTHEW BERGER)
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