US Polls: Voting irregularities noted in some areas

Washington: Voters faced long lines around the country on Tuesday morning, but early reports of problems were sporadic.

So far, there were few signs in key swing states of the sort of massive polling place breakdowns that plagued Ohio in 2004.

As of 10:30 am, the election protection hotline organised by a coalition of civil rights groups had already fielded 25,000 calls from around the country, with the majority of the problems reported involving long lines, broken voting machines and paper ballot shortages.

Voters turn out in droves as polling commences

In Philadelphia, the Committee of Seventy, a local civic group, reported machine breakdowns.

In Virginia, the state Board of Elections reported only three of 2,349 precincts opened late. But at polling places where machines broke down, some poll workers incorrectly designated paper ballots as provisional ballots, according to Jon Greenbaum, director of the Voting Rights Project at the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights.

Meanwhile, both parties continued to pursue lawsuits that could set the stage for further litigation in the event of a close election.

Obama wins in earliest vote

Project Vote, a left-leaning activist group, filed suit Monday in an Indianapolis federal court against Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita and other officials on behalf of an Indiana voter, Drametra Brown. Brown's registration was rejected because she used an old form provided by her co-worker at a Indianapolis nursing home. State law requires voters to register with a current form.

Special: US Presidential elections

The campaign of Republican presidential candidate John McCain filed a lawsuit in federal court in Richmond, Va., on Monday against Virginia election officials alleging that absentee ballots were not mailed to US military personnel overseas in time for them to be returned and received by state officials before polls close at 7 pm on Tuesday.

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