Diddy votes: 'It was a joyous moment'

NEW YORK – New York remained a deep blue state on Election Day, going Barack Obama's way big-time. Still, as Diddy cast his ballot for the Democratic presidential candidate Tuesday, he couldn't help but feel that he had made a difference.

"I felt like my vote was the vote that put him into office. It was down to one vote, and that was going to be my vote. And that may not be true, but that's how much power it felt like I had," the hip-hop mogul said.

After spending much of the campaign using his star wattage to get other people to the polls, Diddy, like other celebrity political boosters, led by example. He arrived at his polling site — a school in midtown Manhattan — in the morning and waited in line as a bevy of media prepared to capture the moment.

Diddy said he believed he was potentially making history by voting for the first black president, and also felt the weight of the past in the voting booth.

"I'm not trying to be dramatic, but I just felt like, Martin Luther King, and I felt the whole civil rights movement, I felt all that energy, and I felt my kids," he said. "It was all there at one time. It was a joyous moment."

Ricky Skaggs felt equally passionate about his choice. He voted early in his home state of Tennessee for Republican John McCain, a decision rooted in his Christian beliefs. He said he couldn't reconcile with Obama on issues ranging from abortion to how strong a supporter he would be of Israel.

"I have really gone to the Scriptures and that's the way I vote. I find a man or woman that to me, their principles, ... lines up with what I believe the word of God says," he said Tuesday. "That's how I vote, and that's the things that I stand on, I would have a hard time voting contrary to that."

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