by Nick Burns, Dara Kerr & Shilanda Woolridge/BERKELEY & OAKLAND

Berkeley and Oakland know how to party! When the media named Barack Obama the winner of the Presidential election on Tuesday night, the streets in both cities erupted in spontaneous celebration. East Bay West Online caught the festivities on film. Watch our interactive presentation after the jump!

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by Angela J. Bass/OAKLAND

When the California Supreme Court legalized gay marriage on June 17, thousands of couples danced to the alter to exchange their vows. An estimated 16,000 couples have been married since then.

Oakland resident Lisa Bach and her wife, Karen Verpeet, tied the knot in August and were among the many newlyweds holding their breath on Tuesday night as poll results on California’s Prop. 8, an attempt to amend the constitution to prevent gays from marrying legally, trickled in from across the state.

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By Clayton Trosclair/BERKELEY

California voters got the word mere seconds after the polls closed: Barack Obama was elected by sweeping margins as the nation’s 44th president, and the first African American chosen for the office.

The victory was joyous on two fronts for many West Berkeley and West Oakland voters. It marked the end of the George W. Bush presidency, an unpopular Republican administration marked by wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the realization of a civil rights dream: that Americans would one day look beyond race in electing the nation’s chief executive.

Obama, a first-term senator from Illinois, claimed a wide victory over John McCain, a former prisoner of war and long-time Republican senator from Arizona. In the final days of the race, Obama campaigned hard in traditional GOP territory such as Nevada and Virginia, and the handful of tossup states that had remained too competitive for pollsters to predict: Pennsylvania, Florida, Ohio, Colorado, Indiana and North Carolina. His efforts paid off, with wins in each state.

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By Nick Burns/BERKELEY

Proponents and opponents of Proposition 8 took their get-out-the-vote efforts to the streets — or freeway — today. A dozen volunteers set up camp on a pedestrian overpass near University Avenue in West Berkeley, hanging banners and waving signs as commuters drove along highway 80, a major traffic corridor connecting Sacramento and San Francisco.

Beginning as early as 6:30 in the morning, signs for and against the controversial proposition appeared  across the north and southbound sides of the overpass. But by early afternoon, supporters of an amendment to California’s constitution that would ban gay marriage left the scene, leaving a hopeful group of opponents unhindered by competing efforts.

If passed, Proposition 8 would overturn a recent California Supreme Court decision that gay marriage is a constitutional right, and nullify the thousands of legal gay marriages performed in the last few months.

Here, East Bay West Online caught up with one emotional opponent who spent his lunch hour encouraging commuters to vote no on Prop. 8.

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By Clayton Trosclair & Dara Kerr/WEST OAKLAND

In the days before the Nov. 4 election, some West Oakland residents announce their pick for president by wearing and selling homemade Barack Obama T-shirts and merchandise. During the evening rush hour, commuters coming out of the West Oakland BART station put on a political parade with screen-printed, bedazzled and customized gear featuring the face of the man who promises change.

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By Elise Craig/BERKELEY

With only 40 days left until the general election on November 4, the Northern California Headquarters of the Obama campaign is working at a sprint. Greeters work the front door, sorting new volunteers from the veterans, as phone bankers make calls to Nevada voters and others fold copies of the latest newsletter in the corner. Front desk volunteers look for the newest phone lists, as a deputy field officer tries to fix the finicky Internet. A Brownie troop leader comes in to ask if she can bring them in “to see what an election is all about.” Read the full story

By Elise Craig/OAKLAND

The Oakland United Democratic Committee campaign office held its grand opening yesterday with a rally led by state and local politicians. Over 200 people came to the 19^th street storefront see lawmakers cheer on Barack Obama, and to promote state and local races.

“We’re going to take back our own state, and we’re going to take back our own country,” said Congresswoman Barbara Lee. “We have an army of people here in this country who are going to make sure that Senator Obama becomes President Obama.”

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