Our person of the year was highly sought after throughout 2004.
The presidential contenders tried to say just the right things to woo this individual.
They'd do just about anything to get this person's attention.
From a turkey call to skating on thin ice. The news media wanted this person, too.
A lot was at stake.
So, if you voted in November, then you are our person of the year. And you share the title with thousands of Central Texans and millions of Americans.
"It's like throwing a party and not only did everybody come, but they brought friends too," Travis County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir said.
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Person of the Year
If you voted, you're the person of the year.
 
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The voter turned out big -- for many reasons. This was our first presidential election since Sept. 11, 2001. And the war in Iraq was at its peak as Americans headed to the polls.
So many things happened between 2000 and 2004 to affect the turnout including what happened right after the last presidential election.
The hanging chads in Florida and the Supreme Court's ultimate involvement made a lasting impression.
"It was so close that really for the first time people began to realize that their votes really do count. And I think that energized people," Barbara Hankins of the Austin League of Women Voters said.
That energy could be seen early on in the presidential campaign in 2003 when the Deaniacs hit the political scene.
In Austin and around the nation, supporters of Democrat Howard Dean used a grass roots effort via the Internet. It involved fundraising and recruiting never done quite like this before.
More than 3,000 people packed Plaza Saltillo in early June of 2003 to hear Dean speak after word of the visit spread on the 'Net.
And while 'the' speech, unfairly or not, "did in" the Dean campaign after a poor showing in Iowa, the impact to presidential politics couldn't be stopped.
All candidates including President Bush and Sen. John Kerry took the Internet recipe and ran with it.
After the final vote was cast in November, Travis, Williamson and Hays counties all set voter turnout records. And 50,000 new registered voters in Travis County alone didn't hurt. Those numbers were remarkable for a state's whose red or blue color wasn't ever in question. Nationwide, about 60 percent of registered voters cast their ballot in November, up from about 51 percent during the 2000 election.
Groups like the League of Women voters hope the presidential election momentum continues into local elections that are arguably more important to our daily lives.
