Displaced residents return to city to cast their ballots

The voters wanted to be sure their opinions are heard.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Their journey began at the church where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. once preached, and it ended at polling places in the shattered city where they once lived.
For four busloads of displaced New Orleans residents, their eight-hour ride from Atlanta was the ultimate expression of their civil rights -- to have a say in how their city is going to be rebuilt after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.
"That's the purpose for coming down here, not to be left out of what's happening in the city," said Wellington Lain, 41, who said he has missed only one election since he was old enough to vote. "It makes me feel as if I still belong."
"This is the first battle in a serious and important struggle," Raphael G. Warnock, senior pastor at King's Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta told the travelers before they boarded the buses Friday night.
Important journey
The election had already been delayed because of the hurricane's damage, and officials arranged for mail-in voting and early voting at satellite locations around the state. Still, many voters wanted to be in their hometown Saturday to personally cast their ballots.
J. Todd Smith and his mother, Paulette, sat near the front of one of the four buses from Atlanta and kept each other company on the long drive. They had evacuated to Houston on the eve of the hurricane, then moved to Atlanta in October.
Through all their moving, they have remained loyal to the Crescent City.
"We're still citizens of New Orleans," said Smith, 24. "We still want to know what's going on there. I still have my driver's license. My license plate still says Louisiana."
Going to the polls reassured him that his opinions still count. The bus caravan and its 300 passengers arrived at the Greater St. Stephens Full Gospel Baptist Church in New Orleans around 6 a.m. Saturday.
Not likely to return
Silvinia Henry told a fellow rider this likely would be her last New Orleans election. The 59-year-old former New Orleans East resident had lived there for more than three decades but isn't sure she'll be able to return.
Still, she wanted to come back and make her voice heard.
"I've been living here for so long," she said. "It was a pleasure for me to come back and give my vote."
Lain also said he might not be able to return. At this point, he said, he hopes to re-establish his business in Atlanta.
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