Vivian Stovall was washing her hair at home Monday when the phone rang.

It was Trey Rogers, legal counsel for Gov. Bill Ritter, and he wanted to know if she was available to come - quickly, please - to the Capitol.

Rogers explained that Margaret Atencio, one of nine Coloradans elected to cast Electoral College votes, was ill and could not attend the vote-signing ceremony at noon. The other eight electors would have to nominate someone to take Atencio's place. Was she interested?

Was she ever.

Stovall, of Denver, is a longtime party activist who wept with joy the night Democrats nominated Barack Obama for president.

But she was all smiles when she signed her name to a document giving her Electoral College vote to Obama, who in January will become the nation's first black president.

"I'm so honored," Stovall said after the ceremony. "I'm still in a daze."

Colorado has nine electoral votes - one from each of the seven congressional districts and two at-large representing the two U.S. Senate seats. The electors were chosen either at district assemblies or the state convention this year.

The formal vote is historic - a fact not lost on the electors, who held them up so guests and everyone else in the governor's office could see.

Stovall knows a little about history. She had to get stitches in her forehead after being whacked with a nightstick during the 1968 Democratic Convention.

The feeling Monday was far different, but exciting. She raced to the Capitol so quickly she didn't have time to fix her hair.

"I found me a nice hat," she said, with a laugh, "and that's what I wore."