Voting begins in historic US election (Extra)

Nov 4, 2008, 10:05 GMT

Washington - Voting started at 6 am (1100 GMT) in several states Tuesday in historic US elections to elect the country's 44th president.

Officials braced for an unprecedented turnout and massive lines at polling places as voters delivered their verdict on Democrat Barack Obama, 47, and his Republican rival John McCain, 72, after the longest and most expensive campaign in US history.

According to tradition, voting actually began at the stroke of midnight Tuesday in a handful of remote towns in the northeastern state of New Hampshire. The residents of Dixville Notch have been meeting in the town's ballroom at midnight each election day since 1960.

Obama won the town's poll by 15 votes to six for McCain, in a departure from 40 years of Republican loyalty.

Next came Vermont, where one town opened polling stations at 5 am (1000 GMT). Other polls around New Hampshire and Vermont opened at 6 am (1100 GMT) Tuesday, as did polls in Connecticut, Kentucky, New Jersey, New York, Virginia, Maine and Vermont. The last polls will close in Alaska at 0500 GMT Wednesday.

Obama, 47, who would be the first African American president in US history, was the strong favourite heading into Tuesday's vote. An aggregate of major national polls compiled by realclearpolitics.com gave Obama 51.6 per cent to McCain's 44.3 per cent on Monday.

Millions of people have already taken to the polls in recent weeks for early or absentee voting allowed in 31 states, including key battlegrounds Florida, North Carolina, Colorado and Nevada.

Election results are expected to start coming in about 0100 GMT Wednesday. The western states could also play a big role this year, with results expected to filter in well after 0300 GMT.