By Mark Matthews

Dec. 13 - KGO - Thousands of Iraqis and Iraqi Americans are traveling to the East Bay community of Pleasanton. They are going to vote in what many hope will be a turning point in history.

This is one of eight polling places in the country, and one of three on the west coast where Iraqi ex-patriots -- people who were born in Iraq and left -- and their children are allowed to come and vote in Iraq's national election. The place is surrounded by a chain link fence. Tere are police and private security guards, metal detectors and bomb sniffing dogs. And all day long, Iraqi Americans have been filing in casting their ballots and clinging to their hopes.

This is not like any polling place for a U.S. election. First of all, voters were lined up at the crack of dawn. Bakstyar Khossnaw from Portland, Oregon was first in line.

Bakstyar Khossnaw, Portland, Oregon: "Last night I drive 10 hours in car to vote."

Ninety-year-old Khana Oshana, born in Baghdad, made the trip from Modesto to vote for her choice and dip her finger into a bottle of purple ink. The ink stain, that takes days to wear off, was conceived as a way of preventing Iraqis from voting more than once. It has evolved into a symbol of freedom.

Outside the fence, a group of Iraqi Americans are singing and waving a flag. But the song is an Assyrian anthem and the flag is Assyrian, and as one of the group explains, there were hopes for a unified Iraq, but it's going to take more time to overcome ethic and religious loyalties.

Dan Dankha, Assyrian Iraqi: "As we see it today, I will give them 10 years to be well set as united Iraqis."

That worries Maha Al Shibib-Joudi. She says without the U.S. presence, religious and ethnic divisions threaten to plunge Iraq into civil war.

Maha Al Shibib-Joudi, Danville: "That's why try I'm trying to make... even if one vote counts you try to vote for people who will make a difference and not based on your religious affiliation."

But religious based political slates are the heavy favorites going into this election, and politically, patience for Iraq in the U.S. Congress is running out.

Representative Ellen Tauscher's district borders Pleasanton. She was in Iraq just 10 days ago and told ABC7 News the Iraqis have a very small window to get it right.

Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Walnut Creek: "And that means they elect a government that is inclusive and non-sectarian and one that can unite the Iraqi people and get a security force trained up and who will fight and die for it."

A former senior advisor to Iraq's provisional authority told me that's an almost impossible order. And that if we're looking for a system of government in Iraq that's truly democratic, we're going to be looking for a very long time.