Americans out in force for historic vote
By Bhagyashree Garekar, US Correspondent
Mr Obama after casting his vote yesterday in Chicago, where he was greeted by dozens of reporters and photographers at a polling station in a school gym.
WASHINGTON: Tens of millions of Americans flocked to the polls yesterday, in some cases lining up before dawn to choose their next leader in the historic election.
Front-running Democrat Barack Obama was seeking to become the first black president of the United States, as his Republican rival John McCain pinned his hopes on an upset win.
Five national polls released yesterday all showed Mr Obama gaining 50 per cent or more of the popular vote - something not accomplished by a Democratic presidential candidate since Jimmy Carter in 1976.
Mr Obama’s margin over Mr McCain ranged from two points to nine points in the final polls.
Many analysts forecast the turnout to easily beat the high of 61 per cent in the 2004 presidential contest.
The results will start to emerge after 7am (Singapore time) today.
In Richmond, Virginia, the capital of a battleground state, voters stood in line through a steady drizzle, sipping coffee and reading newspapers, the New York Times reported.
Mr Obama carried the day in the two small villages in New Hampshire that traditionally open the voting.
In Dixville Notch, he won 15 votes to Mr McCain’s six, becoming the first Democrat to win there since 1968. In Hart’s Location, he won 17 votes to 10 for Mr McCain and two for Libertarian Party candidate Ron Paul.
Mr Obama, 47, led the nationwide popular vote in the final Gallup Daily tracking poll before election day with 53 per cent of the vote to 42 per cent for his Republican rival.
A CNN poll published just hours before voting started gave Mr Obama a narrower lead of 51 to 44 per cent.
But presidential elections are really 50 state-by-state elections, plus the District of Columbia here.
Thus the day was all about trying to win enough of those states to get the 270 electoral college votes needed to win the presidency.
To that end, the candidates and their running mates spent the last days and hours of the campaign making their final pushes in closely contested states from Florida and Virginia to Ohio and Colorado.
Opinion polls showed Mr Obama ahead or even with Mr McCain in at least eight states won by Mr George W. Bush in 2004, including the big prizes of Ohio and Florida. Mr Obama also led in all of the states won by Democrat John Kerry in 2004.
Mr Obama cast his ballot with his daughters, who are too young to vote, by his side at an elementary school in Chicago. His running mate, Senator Joseph Biden, followed suit soon afterwards in Wilmington, Delaware.
Mr McCain later voted in Phoenix, in his home state of Arizona, with his wife Cindy. His running mate Sarah Palin, bidding to become the first woman vice-president, flew home to Wasilla in Alaska, where she is governor, to cast her vote
Meanwhile, US stocks surged, with gains of more than 250 points on the Dow Jones in early trading, after the presidential election polls opened.
The rally came despite reports of the worst contraction in manufacturing since 1982 and forecasts that the sagging economy will reduce profits.
Perceived as better able to handle the economy facing its worst crisis since the Great Depression, Mr Obama has offered the mantra of ‘change’ at a time when 90 per cent of Americans think their country is on the wrong track.
Mr McCain has struggled to separate himself from President Bush in a difficult political environment for the Republicans, who are trying to hold on to the presidency for a third consecutive term.
The 72-year-old Mr McCain has attacked what he has described as Mr Obama’s ’socialist’ economic policies and argues that his rival is a ‘risky choice’ in the face of daunting global challenges.
The early vote - an unprecedented one-third of the electorate voted ahead of Election Day this time - suggested an advantage for Mr Obama. Official figures showed that more Democrats turned up than Republicans.
Democrats are also expected to expand majorities in both chambers of Congress. They need to gain nine Senate seats to reach a 60-seat majority that would give them the muscle to defeat Republican procedural hurdles.
That would increase pressure on Democrats to deliver on campaign promises to end the war in Iraq, eliminate Mr Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy and overhaul a health-care system that leaves 47 million Americans uninsured.
In a traditionally Republican bastion surrounding Cincinnati, Ohio, Mr Ian Edwards, 60, the chief executive of a small technology company, told Reuters why he voted for Mr Obama.
‘Very simple,’ he said. ‘Bad war. Bad economy. Bad reputation overseas.’
For his part, the Naked Cowboy - a fixture in New York’s Times Square who plays a guitar in his underwear - told CNN that he had voted for Mr McCain because said he favoured ‘entrepreneurs’ like himself.
Source : Straits Times - 05 Nov 2008
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