Arriving at the Radisson Hotel in Newport Beach, Calif., around 5:30 a.m. Thursday, Giravi, two of his brothers, his sister-in-law, a niece, a nephew and a couple of friends were told by employees that the hotel was not a polling place and they would have to go to Pomona - the closest polling place other than San Diego and San Francisco - to vote.

Giravi, a Kurd refugee who has lived in Utah since 1996, said he ended up at the Orange County hotel after receiving inaccurate information from a Web site he used to find directions to election booths.

Giravi said hotel employees told him he was not the only person who had inquired about the Radisson being a polling place. "A few families came before you asking the same thing," he was told.

Instead of giving up or heading to Pomona to vote, though, the group decided to take a two-hour car ride south to El Cajon near San Diego to vote.

"We went to San Diego and just made it a road trip," Giravi said by cell phone Thursday on his drive back to Utah.

The 41-year-old Salt Lake City car dealer said he was one of about 100 Kurds, originally from northern Iraq, and 50 Iraqis from the south, who made the trek from Utah to California.

"Almost everybody I know came except some people who were left behind to take care of kids," Giravi said.

A father of six himself, Giravi left his wife and kids in Salt Lake City to make the roughly 13-hour whirlwind trip to San Diego. The extra time it took to get there from Newport Beach wasn't a problem for the group.

"It was not very upsetting," Giravi said. "It was worth more than two hours of our time. Our culture and our people are more important to us than that."

The group arrived in El Cajon about 8:30 a.m., 30 minutes before the polls opened. Giravi said he was impressed that the parking lot was full of cars with voters from Colorado, Arizona, Washington, California, Nevada and other states.

In January, Iraqi voters elected an interim parliament. This time around, more than 200 political parties representing different religious, secular and ethnic groups were up for election.

"We want a free Iraq," Giravi said. "We want a new democratic Iraq where everyone has rights as a human being and can practice their culture."

Danoun Giravi, Mohammed's 25-year-old nephew who also made the trek, said it felt great voting for the first time.

"It was awesome," he said. "It was a very good feeling. It was great to vote for the kind of government you want to have."

Danoun's sister, Manao, who also voted Thursday, said she hopes the representatives from her home region of Kurdistan win the elections.

The Giravi family and their friends were expected to drive throughout the night Thursday to get back to Salt Lake City. The extra-long journey didn't diminish their spirits.

"This was something these people had never done before in their lives: vote in a free election," Giravi said.

"We're happy we did this," he continued. "The excitement of the event made us forget all the toil and trouble that we went through."

jbergreen@sltrib.com