US elections may face voting problems

US elections may face voting problems.

Just what does that mean?
Does it mean that if Obama is winning then they can claim that the voting machines have malfunctioned and therefore the vote count is wrong?


Election officials across the US braced for record turnout on Tuesday in a historic presidential race, hoping to avoid the long lines and malfunctioning machines that scarred previous contests for the White House.

Lawsuits alleging voter suppression surfaced in the hotly contested state of Virginia. A judge refused late Monday to extend poll hours and to add voting machines to black precincts in some areas. Civil rights group the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, in a federal lawsuit, demanded those changes, saying minority neighbourhoods would experience overwhelming turnout and there weren't enough electronic machines.

US District Judge Richard Williams denied the motion for a preliminary injunction, but ordered election officials to publicise that people in line by 7 p.m., the polls' closing time, would be allowed to cast ballots.

Republican John McCain's campaign sued the Virginia electoral board hours before polls opened, trying to force the state to count late-arriving military ballots from overseas.

McCain asked a federal judge to order state election officials to count absentee ballots mailed from abroad that arrive as late as November 14.

Lawsuits have become common fodder in election battles. The 2000 recount meltdown in Florida was ultimately decided by the US Supreme Court, with Republican George W. Bush defeating Democrat Al Gore. In Ohio, the 2004 turmoil over malfunctioning machines and long lines was beset by litigation.

Obama leads over McCain

Democrat Barack Obama confidently sensed victory in his historic bid to become America's first black president as he wrapped up a marathon two-year campaign. Republican John McCain stubbornly promised an underdog upset in Tuesday's election.

Obama and McCain, separated by 25 years and a seemingly unbridgeable political gulf, had agreed on one thing during the longest presidential campaign in US history - their promise to slam the door on the era of George W. Bush.

But they were deeply at odds over how to fix the nation's crumbling economy and end the 5 1/2-year war in Iraq, the issues that sent Bush's job approval plummeting to a record low at the end of his eight-year presidency.
Record numbers of Americans were expected at polling stations across the US adding their ballots to 29 million citizens who had already voted in 30 states. The early vote tally suggested an advantage for Obama, with official statistics showing that Democrats voted in larger numbers than Republicans in North Carolina, Colorado, Florida and Iowa. All four states voted for Bush in 2004.

Obama came up a winner in the first official results announced early Tuesday from two small towns in New Hampshire, where a tradition of casting the first votes on Election Day lives on.

Obama defeated McCain by a count of 15 to 6 in Dixville Notch, and the town of Hart's Location reported 17 votes for the Democrat, 10 for the Republican and two for write-in Ron Paul. Both towns had favoured George W. Bush in the last two elections.

Sad news overshadowed the campaign Monday when Obama announced the death of his grandmother, whose personality and bearing shaped him deeply. Madelyn Payne Dunham was 86 when she died of cancer late Sunday in Hawaii.

“She's gone home,” Obama said, tears running down both cheeks as tens of thousands of rowdy supporters at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte grew silent as he announced Dunham's death. The family said a private ceremony would be held later.

McCain, meanwhile, must hold as many Bush states as possible while trying to capture a Democratic stronghold, such as Pennsylvania.

While no battleground state was ignored, Virginia, where no Democrat has won in 40 years, and Ohio, where no Republican president has ever lost, seemed most coveted. Together, they account for 33 electoral votes that McCain must win.

Free coffee and ice cream

Voters will pick a new leader for the country on Tuesday, and maybe pick up some free coffee, ice cream and other goodies too. But some authorities Question whether such giveaways run afoul of election rules.

Starbucks Corp. is offering a free cup of coffee to anyone who reports voting on Tuesday, while Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc. is giving away star-shaped doughnuts. Ice cream maker Ben and Jerry's is offering a free scoop to anyone, as part of a celebration of the election.

Prayer in Obama’s ancestral Kenya village

Kenyans in Barack Obama's ancestral homeland prayed for victory on Tuesday as he aimed to become the first African-American president of the United States.
The western town of Kisumu, on the shores of Lake Victoria, was in a frenzy of excitement as the country's favourite adopted son began the last leg of his race for the White House.

The Democratic candidate's late father hailed from the rural region, and exuberant Kenyans gave his Republican war hero rival John McCain little hope of making a comeback after lagging for weeks in the opinion polls.

US troops in Iraq keep eye on voting

US soldiers in Mosul, where war still rages have caught a glimpse of the election battle back home while eating breakfast as they await the outcome of a contest that could decide the future of the US mission in Iraq.

Three of the four TV screens at the dining hall at Camp Marez in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul Tuesday were tuned to sports and only one to CNN where Obama's last rally at Manassas, Virginia, was being shown live.

Soldiers said they would continue with their mission Tuesday and nothing special was planned for the election day. Those who voted had already mailed in their absentee ballots long ago.
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