Americans went to the polls on Tuesday to choose the next president of the United States, deciding whether Senator Barack Obama or Senator John McCain was better suited to guide the nation through an economic crisis at home and two wars abroad.
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Voters lined up before dawn in Nottaway Park in Vienna, Va., to cast their ballots. More Photos »
In voting booths in every corner of the land, the people were collectively writing the ending to a political saga that has been unfolding for nearly two years, during a tumultuous, uncertain period of American history in which record numbers of people expressed concerns that the country was heading down the wrong track.
Larger than usual turnout was reported at polling stations in a number of key states, and lengthy lines, hour-long waits and overflowing parking lots were not unusual. Some voting experts and campaign advisers predicted that some 130 million voters would cast ballots, which would be the highest percentage turnout in a century, and would shatter the previous record of 123.5 million people who cast ballots four years ago.
By noon Eastern time on Tuesday, some precincts in Chester County, Pa., were reporting that up to half of their registered voters had already cast ballots, according to Agnes L. O'Toole, the county's deputy director of voter services. She said that some voters waited in line for as long as two hours.
"This is above and beyond an anomaly," Ms. O'Toole said. "Our phones are off the wall."
By 1 p.m, some 3,000 people had cast votes in Purcellville, Va. — more than the 2,900 people who voted there in the entire 2004 election, said Robert Lazaro, the town's mayor.
The candidates made the long election season one day longer. Mr. Obama made a last campaign stop Tuesday in Indiana, a traditionally Republican state that he hopes to win, to visit a phone bank staffed by union members.
"I'd like to get your vote," he told one man on the phone, according to a pool report. "Don't be discouraged if there are some long lines."
For his part, Mr. McCain set off for campaign stops in Colorado and New Mexico, two western states that voted for President Bush in 2004 and that he hopes to keep in the Republican column. At a rally in Grand Junction, Colo., surrounded by friends and family, he sounded an urgent call for help.
"Get out there and vote!" Mr. McCain said. "I need your help. Volunteer, knock on doors, get your neighbors to the polls, drag 'em there if you need to. We're going to bring real change to Washington and we have to fight for it!
But first, the candidates voted.
Mr. Obama cast his ballot at 7:36 a.m. Central time at the Beulah Shoesmith Elementary School in Chicago, accompanied by his wife, Michelle, who also voted, and by their daughters Sasha and Malia. "I noticed that Michelle took a long time though," Mr. Obama said afterwards. "I had to check to see who she was voting for."
Mr. McCain voted later in Phoenix, at 9:08 a.m. Mountain time, at the Albright United Methodist Church. He and his wife, Cindy, were greeted there by supporters with cheers of "Senator McCain!" and "Thank you, Senator! We love you!" Mr. McCain emerged with a sticker on his lapel that said, "I voted today."
Mr. Obama's running mate, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, voted in Wilmington with his wife, Jill, and his 91-year-old mother, Jean Finnegan Biden. Mr. McCain's running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, voted in Wasilla with her husband, Todd. "Tomorrow I hope, I pray, I believe that I'll be able to wake up as vice president-elect," she told reporters there.
In tiny Dixville Notch, N.H., which casts its ballots just after midnight, Mr. Obama won 15 votes to Mr. McCain's 6. The town usually votes Republican, and President Bush won the vote there in 2004.
There were some reports of voting problems. Virginia election officials said that three polling places opened late because of "human error." At other polling places there, the paper ballots of voters who came in from the rain to vote with wet hands became soggy enough to foul the optical scanning machines that read the ballots. And at a polling place on the east side of Philadelphia, several voting machines were not working because they were too far from an available electrical outlet and no extension cord was available. But most areas reported things going smoothly.
Regardless of who wins on Tuesday, the election will make history. If Mr. Obama is elected, he will become the nation's first African-American president. If Mr. McCain wins, his running mate will be the first woman elected vice president.
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