How did he feel?
"Oh, my God! I feel very nice. I feel freedom," said A-Saidi, 37.
Organizers said they expected a heavier turnout over the weekend. "Friday is going to be slow because everyone goes to work and to Friday prayers" at mosques, said Mohamed Taam, one official.
Kazim Warmzyary of Fairfax, left, and Rzgar Kareem of Maplewood, N.J., dance with a Kurdish flag after voting in New Carrollton.
(Robert A. Reeder -- The Washington Post)
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While most voters appeared to be from the Washington area, some traveled long distances.
Ali Hama Amin, 30, flew in from Boston, where he said he studied at Harvard's School of Public Health.
"It's a historical moment for us. It's our first election," said Amin, who wore a blue suit and formal black coat for the occasion. A native of Sulaymaniyah, in the Kurdish autonomous zone, he said he voted for the main Kurdish slate.
"I don't like to have radical clerics in Iraq. I want a democratic, free federation of Iraq," he said.
Another Kurd, Lazha Talat, a graduate student at the University of South Florida, flew in with a group of other Iraqi Fulbright scholars.
"It's my duty to participate in the first election we can do," the 26-year-old explained. She noted, however, that turnout was fairly light.
"It's crowded with reporters. Maybe you are more than us," she said, noting the swirl of TV cameramen around the departing voters.
The fault lines in Iraqi society appeared evident among voters in the Washington area. Those casting ballots appeared to be mainly Kurds and Shiites, both groups oppressed by Hussein's government. There were few Arab Sunnis, the minority that dominated Iraq under Hussein. Many Sunnis in Iraq have decided to stay away from the polls.
Some Iraqis made no secret of the fact they were voting on ethnic lines.
"We are the majority, and we are going to prove it," declared Ahmed Al Mayali, 36, a Shiite taxi driver from Roanoke.
But others emphasized they wanted to overcome such divisions.
Ahmed Alsaady, 37, of Arlington wore a knitted Kurdish cap as well as a black-and-white checkered scarf he described as Shiite. He was trying to embody the different groups in Iraq, he said, gesturing from his hat to his scarf.
"From north to south, will be free Iraq," he said, smiling.
Staff writer Hamil R. Harris contributed to this report.
