State Rep. Barbara Ballard, D-Lawrence, said she won’t forget U.S. Sen. Barack Obama’s speech accepting the Democratic nomination or the entire closing night of the Democratic National Convention.”It was electrifying,” she said. And it was difficult getting to Denver’s Invesco Field on Thursday, but Ballard said it was worth it.Ballard said she and several other Kansans got on the light-rail about 1:30 p.m. There were some train difficulties and they ended up walking with thousands others through parking lots and over a bridge.”It was like a march,” she said. Everyone was good-natured and having a good time; the crowd was diverse.By the time she got into Invesco Field and sat down, it was 6:45 p.m., Ballard said. But that didn’t matter, she said. The crowd, she said, seemed to sense they were part of history.”Elections should be meaningful. I certainly feel that people are really, critically engaged in this election,” she said. *Tess Banion of Lawrence was a supporter of Hillary Clinton before the convention, but is now behind Obama.She thought Obama’s speech presented a lot of his ideas, but said she was most impressed with his defense of himself against Republican presidential nominee John McCain.”He showed he wasn’t going to get swiftboated or Kerry-ized,” she said, referring to ads in the 2004 presidential election from a group called Swiftboat Veterans for Truth that attacked Democratic nominee John Kerry’s Vietnam War claims.