Tight Race Spurs Big Turnout

The rush to beat the Election Day crowds at the ballot box Tuesday turned into a long wait in many places as large numbers of early voters created long lines that ran outside the doors and down streets.

Some determined voters had to wait in rain that fell from Texas to the lower Great Lakes. Texas Panhandle residents navigated snow-covered roads. And some voters in Kansas had to wait for a furnace to heat up.

With polls deadlocked and interest in the race high, elections officials expected heavy turnout this year. Some polls project Election Day 2004 may see the largest proportion of eligible people voting in a generation.

It could also see controversies and legal disputes over close races in one or more swing states. Courts were already in action as Election Day dawned, with a federal appeals court approving a GOP plan to station observers in polling places in Ohio. In Florida, the counting of absentee ballots began, but thousands were delayed going out.

Even as voters streamed to polling places to make their picks, the candidates kept campaigning.

"This election is in the hands of the people, and I feel very comfortable about that," Mr. Bush said after voting near his ranch in Crawford, Texas, along with his wife and daughters.

On his way back to Washington, he stopped in Columbus, Ohio, and made a few calls from a phone bank. "I promise you, it's me," he told one doubter.

Kerry voted along with his daughters at the Massachusetts Statehouse in Boston. "I don't think anybody can anticipate what it's like to see your name on the ballot for president," he said. "It's very special. It's exciting." His wife cast her ballot earlier in Pennsylvania.

At dawn, he was handing out information packets to volunteers in La Crosse, Wis., where he said, "We're going to take America to a better place." Aides said he handed out presents on an emotional campaign-concluding flight back to Massachusetts.

Sen. John Edwards, who had cast his North Carolina ballot in early voting, stopped by polling places in Florida and said, "We believe the system's going to work the way it's supposed to." Vice President Dick Cheney voted near his home in Wyoming and said, "When you start a day like this in Jackson Hole, it's going to be a good day."

Long lines were reported at precincts from Florida and North Carolina to West Virginia and Michigan.

"We even had people waiting in line before we opened at 6:30 a.m.," said Wayne County Clerk Robert Pasley in Wayne, W.Va. "In some places, there was more than a dozen people waiting, and that's heavy."

Rain was falling in parts of the Midwest as voters lined up. Brian Fravel, a 43-year-old welder who lives in Columbus, Ohio, said he had never before had to wait to vote. When he arrived at the Northland Church of Christ at 7:30 a.m., he found a long line of people and waited 45 minutes to cast a ballot. "I thought I was early enough to beat it," Fravel said.

At the Swift Creek Community Center in Raleigh, N.C, the line snaked out from the small, cinderblock building, across a gravel parking lot and along the street.

By 7:15 a.m., the queue to get into the voting booths at Temple Beth Zion-Beth Israel in Philadelphia stretched for half a city block.

At Saint John's Presbyterian Church near downtown Detroit, about 120 people were lined up to vote shortly after the polls opened at 7 a.m.

Election officials in Nashua, N.H.'s ward 1 said when the doors opened at 6 a.m., more than 200 people were in line.

The nation's first votes cast and counted on Election Day, in the mountain hamlet of Hart's Location, N.H., reflected in miniature what seemed likely to be writ large across the country: a horse race in votes, not just polls.

Following a quirky tradition of post-midnight voting in New Hampshire's North Country, 16 people voted for Mr. Bush, 14 for Kerry and one for Ralph Nader. Mr. Bush beat Democrat Al Gore 17-13 in the hamlet in 2000.

The prospect of unprecedented legal challenges hung over Election Day, each side sending thousands of lawyers into motion to monitor the flood of newly registered voters and mount hair-trigger challenges against any sign of irregularity.

"My hope of course is that this election ends tonight," Mr. Bush told reporters, referring to the expected legal challenges in some districts. He won the presidency in 2000 only after a Supreme Court decision gave him Florida and the Electoral College majority.

For his part, Kerry made Election Day appearances in Wisconsin, where residents can register and vote on the same day. Of the reports of long voter lines, he said, "It's just a magical kind of day."

There were scattered problems amid the magic. Five locations in Franklin County, Ohio, opened up to a half-hour late because poll workers did not show up on time.

In Essex, Md., an election judge left a polling place briefly, saying he forgot something at home. Voters who had to wait were allowed to vote by provisional ballot.

One polling location in Mauldin, S.C., was forced to switch to paper ballots because of equipment troubles.

In Volusia County, Fla., a memory card in an optical-scan voting machine failed Monday at an early voting site and didn't count 13,000 ballots. Officials planned to feed and count those ballots Tuesday.

CBS News Early Show contributor Craig Crawford said turnout will be the key factor in election 2004.

"Today, for both parties, it's like you host a party and you get a nervous feeling. 'How many people are going to show up?' or 'Will anybody show up?'" he said. "We think a lot of people will show up."