IRVINE -- Dozens of immigrants from Iraq's minority Kurdish community sang and danced outside the polling station in Irvine Sunday in an impromptu celebration after casting absentee ballots in their homeland's first independent election in nearly 50 years.

Because of a 14-hour time difference, the election in Iraq was almost over by the time the doors of the polling station at the decommissioned El Toro Marine Base swung open Sunday, but that didn't dampen the enthusiasm of scores of Iraqi expatriates who flocked to the center. Some came from more than 1,000 miles away.

Kurdish women wearing colorful traditional dresses and men in loose tunics with wide bands of fabric wrapped around their waists waved flags outside, feasted on meat and vegetables and danced in a circle as Kurdish music blasted from a car stereo.

A few feet away in the center's parking lot, a family of Christian Assyrians -- another Iraqi ethnic minority -- waved an Assyrian flag and showed off intricate tattoos of the Assyrian cross and the Assyrian winged bull painted on their biceps.

"We all left around 9 a.m. so we could get here at the same time and have a party after we voted," said Kaniah Zangana, 47, a Kurd who came with her sister and three children from San Diego. "This is history for us, because Kurdish people have never had a vote. They were always killed and poison-gassed by Saddam Hussein. This is a very special day for us."

Nearly 4,000 Iraqi immigrants signed up during a nine-day registration period to cast absentee ballots in Irvine, where election organizers established the only polling station for Iraqi expatriates west of the Mississippi.

A total of seven polling stations were also set up at or near Detroit, Nashville, Tenn., Chicago and Washington, D.C. -- all U.S. cities with large Iraqi immigrant populations.

Voters will elect a 275-National Assembly and 18 provincial legislatures. The assembly will draft Iraq's constitution and pick a prime minister and government.

Many voters said Sunday they had traveled hundreds of miles twice in the past two weeks -- once to register in person and once to vote. Inside the polling station, poll workers clapped and cheered as one voter after another dropped a ballot in a large, clear plastic box.

Those who had already cast ballots had deep ink stains on their right pointer fingers where poll workers marked them to prevent double voting.

Wahab Murad, 43, flew in with his 20-year-old son, Dana, to cast his ballot. Murad, who drove from Denver last week to register, said the effort was well worth it.

"During 35 years in Iraq, nobody could vote," he said, as he took pictures of his fellow Kurds dancing and cheering. "I would walk from Denver if possible."

Nital Meshkor of San Diego, who voted Sunday in Irvine, said she was impressed by the voter turnout in Iraq despite the threats of violence from insurgents trying to stop the election. Insurgents struck polling stations with a string of suicide bombings and mortar volleys, killing at least 44 people -- but the death toll was lower than she had expected.

"Everybody was threatened, so the ratio was good. Imagine this happening in America," Meshkor said. "If everyone was threatened, no one would vote."

Walid al-Zubidi, 20, came from San Diego and met three friends at the polling station who had traveled from Phoenix. He said he voted for a list of candidates by the Shiite Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in hopes that the respected cleric would calm the violence in Iraq.

"If they elect him to be president, all these things in Iraq will stop. Once he says one word, all of this terrorism will stop," al-Zubidi said. "The United States can just chill back once he becomes president."

Al-Zubidi's friend, 32-year-old Salim al-Jumaily, of Phoenix, said he believes the election is important because it could erase the ethnic and religious divisions in Iraq.

"We don't want Iraq to be Sunni and Shiite and all that. Religion is between God and the heart," said al-Jumaily, referring to strife between the majority Shiite Muslims and the minority Sunni Muslims, who held power under Saddam Hussein. "We need freedom for the people because we are tired of Saddam Hussein."

Registration numbers for overseas voting were lower than expected, largely because of fears of violence, the scarcity of polling stations and conflicts with the Islamic feast holiday, Eid-al-Adha.

More than 186,600 Iraqis living abroad had voted by the end of the day Saturday, out of more than 280,300 overseas Iraqis registered in 14 nations. That number included 16,420 from the United States out of the nearly 26,000 Iraqi-Americans who registered.

Voting numbers for Sunday would not be released until at least Monday, organizers said.

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