ABOARD THE ELECTION EXPRESS

Sal Vokshi has not made up his mind about who he will vote for.

HEMPSTEAD, New York (CNN)– For some Americans, watching the presidential debates is considerably more than a spectator sport.

Sal Vokshi, 37, grew up in Tirana, Albania. He departed while still in his teens, he said, because he wanted two things: to leave behind the memory of the Communist rule he knew as a boy, and to seek what he trusted in his heart would be a better life in the United States.

He said he has achieved both goals.

“I have been a citizen of the United States long enough that I have voted in two presidential elections," he said. “George W. Bush, both times.”

What he remembers with the most emotion is not the particular man for whom he voted, but the excitement and pride he felt in casting his ballot.

“You would have to come from a place like the place I come from to understand," he said.

He is a waiter in a local restaurant; he has the night off tonight, so he can watch John McCain and Barack Obama debate.

He hasn’t made up his mind yet. Neither man can be sure of his vote.

Until tonight.

“Tonight is the final decision for me,” he said.

He is carefully weighing both choices.

“McCain makes me feel more secure about the country," he said. “Obama is always talking about how he wants to take troops out of places, and not waste money on war. I think McCain may be right.”

But on health care, he said he much prefers Obama’s positions.

“He seems to care about middle-class people,” he said. “I have a home, a wife, two little girls, age four and age two. But I don’t have health insurance. Maybe waiters at Chili’s and Applebee’s get it, I don’t know, but where I work I don’t have it.”

So when he gets sick. . . .

“I pay the doctor with a check, or a credit card,” he said. “But sometimes I worry about what would happen to me if I get really sick, or if I fall. That‘s what I will be listening for in the debate tonight– what they will say about health care for people like my family and me."

He said he and his family live about ten minutes from Hofstra University, where the debate will be held.

“I know I have no chance of seeing it in person there,” he said. “The New York Jets have their summer practice at Hofstra, and I go watch the practices all the time. It‘s free. It was a lot easier to see Brett Favre in person at Hofstra than it would be to see McCain or Obama.”

Whoever wins Sal Vokshi’s vote tonight, he said, the real thrill will come in less than three weeks, when, for the third time in his life, he will step behind the curtains to vote for a president of the United States.

He still speaks with an accent. When people ask him about it, he says:

“This is my country. This is my country.”