Sam Patten had a front-row seat when Iraqis started voting.

The Camden man came away from Sunday’s experience impressed with the will and courage of the Iraqi people, and he believes the effort to hatch a new nation has largely been a success.

Patten, 33, works for the International Republican Institute, an organization – along with its Democratic counterpart – formed during the Reagan years to help foster democracy around the world.

On Thursday night he was in Amman, Jordan, preparing to board a flight home when he spoke, in a telephone interview, about the last six months of work in Iraq.

When he was home for a visit in August, Patten told of how IRI worked with the 100-plus political entities in the country to help them form parties and coalitions. Since the summer, voter blocs coalesced behind three major groups: a Shiite Muslim party, the U.S. government-backed party led by Ayad Allawi, and the Kurdish party.

The bigger challenge of the last five months was to help teach Iraqis how to vote, and to persuade them to participate in the process, he said.

The differences between the U.S. and Iraqi versions of an election are vast, but there were some similar strategies, Patten said.

TV advertising played a key role in one of IRI’s efforts to convince Iraqis of the importance of voting. IRI produced a series of TV ads featuring Khalil al-Rifaee, a well-known Iraqi actor.

Al-Rifaee actually had landed a role in the film “Lawrence of Arabia,” but never appeared in the film because the Iraqi revolution of 1958 occurred the day after he was hired. The part was filled by Omar Sharif.

“We filmed several spots,” with al-Rifaee serving as the pitchman “as to why it was important to vote,” Patten said.

IRI and other groups were concerned that Iraq’s Sunni Muslim population would not participate in the election. Many were concerned about its legitimacy, he said, and were convinced results would be rigged.

But in the TV spots, al-Rifaee told viewers, “You had to be brave to vote,” that it was a part of a long and patriotic tradition. IRI believes 30 percent to 40 percent of Sunnis voted, more than initially expected, Patten said.

Another simple but effective step IRI took was to print 1 million copies of the ballot, which were posted and distributed around the country for Iraqis to view before Election Day. Since entering a polling place was a potentially life-threatening act, it was important for Iraqis to know their choices, he said.

“It was a Sisyphean task even for the parties to educate people on what they stood for,” he said. “The ballot was very confusing.”

Three-digit numbers were assigned to each party, so that campaigning centered on touting the attributes of “285” or “169,” Patten said.

Patten said violence was expected on election day. At one Baghdad polling place, someone with a rocket-propelled grenade launcher showed up in the street, aiming his weapon at the building. Voters scattered, the man fired, but the grenade missed.

A few hours later, about 70 voters returned, more than had been there when the weapon was fired. That commitment to voting left Patten in awe.

“The election happened because of the will and the courage of the Iraqi people,” he said, “but none of that could have happened without the presence of the U.S. military,” which reassured Iraqis.

Last summer, 15 percent to 20 percent of Iraqis supported a party or candidate, Patten said IRI polling revealed. By January, more than 40 percent had identified with one of the 111 parties or candidates.

Polls taken in May and June found that only 15 percent understood that the vote was to elect a transitional national assembly. Three weeks ago, that number had grown to just over 40 percent.

“It was a challenge to get people to understand at a rudimentary level what they were doing,” he said, and that their votes really would be counted.

Two other polls bode well for the fledgling democracy, Patten said. One found that “just over 50 percent bought into secularism – separation between church and state,” he said. Another, taken just before voting, found that about 50 percent would accept the government created if they believed that most Iraqis actually voted.