As Barack Obama moved to a decisive and historic victory Tuesday, some voters saw things that don't normally take place.

Voter Flies From Germany To Cast Ballot

Worried that she didn't have time to send in her mail-in ballot, Cynthia Bolen-Nieland decided not to chance it and boarded a plane Sunday from Germany to Boulder, Denver station KMGH reported.

Bolen-Nieland made it in time to cast her vote at 8 a.m. Tuesday in Boulder. Bolen-Nieland, an American citizen living in Germany, said she became enamored with Obama after seeing him speak in front of a crowd of 200,000 near the Brandenburg Gate in July. She said she wanted the feeling of owning a very historic moment.

Bolen-Nieland is the daughter of Olympian David Bolen, former U.S. ambassador to Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and Germany.

Dust Slows Ballot Count In Boulder

Election workers in Boulder County were still counting ballots on Wednesday, KMGH reported.

Counting machines were not reading some ballots correctly because of dust on the ballots, possibly coming from the creases after the mail-in ballots were folded.

By midnight, 53,522 ballots had been counted. Four hours later, nearly 58,000 of the 170,000 expected ballots had been counted.

The dust made the optical scanners think some people overvoted or filled in too many boxes. Dust on the scanner lens can cause a faint streak to appear vertically down a scanned ballot.

A team of two people, with a Republican and a Democrat, are visually inspecting each and every ballot to make sure they are accurately counted.

A Boulder County clerk believes the votes should be all counted sometime Wednesday or Thursday, but the dust issue will slow down election results.

Kentucky Bucks Trends

In Kentucky, many long-term trends fell, Louisville television station WLKY reported.

For the first time in 44 years, the state did not vote for the winner of the presidential election. Hamilton County, Ohio, however, voted for a Democrat for the first time in 44 years.

Some things stayed the same, however. The small town of Rabbit Hash elected a dog as mayor.

A border collie named Lucy Lou beat nine other dogs, a cat, one possum, one donkey and one person. The previous mayor -- a dog named Junior Cochran -- died in office.

State Senator Fights Over Sign

In Arizona, a Democratic Party worker said an Arizona state senator assaulted her when he tried to remove a sign near a polling place.

Ruth Levin, 78, accused Republican Sen. John Huppenthal of driving up to the apartment complex where she was working, jumping out of a car and cutting down a sign that criticized his efforts to improve air quality at a high school.

Huppenthal threw the sign into the back seat of the car and drove off, but not before Levin opened the car door, grabbed her sign and a handful of paperwork, police said.

Huppenthal said the apartment complex's manager gave him permission to remove the sign from the property. Police said they are looking into the incident as a possible act of disorderly conduct or criminal damage.

Playoffs As Policy

While many voters chose their candidate based on policy issues, speaking ability or even as a way to protest against the current administration, other last-minute issues swayed some people.

One Indiana University student told station WRTV in Indianapolis that he planned to vote for Sen. John McCain, but changed his mind when Obama said on "Monday Night Football" the day before the election that he would add a playoff system to college football if he could.

McCain told ESPN's Chris Berman that he would do something about performance-enhancing drugs if he could change something about sports.

Father, Son To Serve Together

In San Antonio, a candidate for Bexar County Commissioner was elected to serve with his father.

Kevin Wolff will join his father, Nelson Wolff.

However, the younger Wolff said there will not likely be a conflict of interest, because he is a Republican, while his father is a Democrat.

Bush And Sewage

In San Francisco, voters rejected a measure that would have renamed a sewage treatment plant after President George W. Bush.

Some critics said the name change for the facility wasn't fair -- to the hard-working sewage plant, The Associated Press reported. The White House never commented on the ballot measure.

Voting At Barack

At one voting location, it would have been hard to imagine anyone but Obama winning. One Columbus, Ohio, poll was set up at the Barack Recreation Center.

The rec center was dedicated in 1964 in honor of a former city recreation director. While the name is spelled the same, it actually pronounced BAYR'-ihk. Precinct presiding judge Hattie Harris said voting went smoothly at the rec center. She added lines weren't nearly as long as they were in 2004.