Americans cast their first ballots

FROM a New England hamlet to a critical swing state neighbouring Washington's halls of power to the storm-scarred streets of New York, Americans are lining up to cast ballots for Barack Obama or Mitt Romney.

Many were patient as voting got under way on Tuesday. Some were jittery and still others - those still enduring power outages and the mountainous mess and wreckage left by superstorm Sandy last week - were a bit cranky.

For some a palpable sense of excitement hung over what they saw as a crossroads for deeply divided and economically struggling America.

Up and down the East Coast, voters braved very cold weather in the pre-dawn darkness as they waited to bring the curtain down on one of the hardest-fought and most expensive election campaigns ever.

Facing them was a choice between two men with very different visions of how to get the country firmly back on its feet.

"It's very exciting, I love the turnout," said Obama supporter Cal Alde, who works in publishing. He sported a cartoonish star-spangled top hat and a "Keep Obama and carry on" T-shirt and expressed confidence in an Obama win.

Alde spoke as he breakfasted on a bagel at a Starbucks in Falls Church, a Washington suburb in key swing state Virginia, after casting his vote.

"But we're biased," added colleague Will Farnam, wearing a pro-Obama badge. "There are a lot of Romney people out there... It's going to be tight."

Election fever permeated unlikely places. On one rush-hour bus rolling down 16th Street in downtown Washington - just a few blocks straight ahead lay the pillared, majestic White House itself - the driver urged people to vote.

Some riders wore stickers on their lapels showing they already had.

Before dawn, more than 100 people were already patiently waiting in line at a Falls Church community centre for more than half an hour when the basement gymnasium turned polling station threw open its doors at precisely 6am (2200 AEDT).

"The polls are open! Go on in!" the polling station manager declared.

Blue tape on the footpath marked the line that Democratic and Republican campaign workers could not cross to solicit votes at the Falls Church facility. Two dogs sat patiently for their owners to return from doing their civic duty.

Virginia, which helped put Obama into the White House in 2008 after favouring Republicans for years, is a battleground state where the contest is so tight it could swing the final national outcome.

Within 20 minutes of polls opening, dozens of voters were seen by AFP reporters waiting outside voting stations in northern Virginia, an early sign of enthusiasm in the race between Obama and Romney.

"It's going to be a higher than normal turnout for sure," said Romney campaigner Chris Redder as he distributed sample ballots to arriving voters in Falls Church indicating which Republican boxes they should tick.

"I consider this an important election," he said. "It's two visions of America -- more personal responsibility versus more intrusive government, and pro-life versus what I'd say pro-abortion."

If Obama is re-elected, Redder told AFP, his policies would "damage the country" in ways that would take years to recover from.

Tuesday's very first ballots were cast just after midnight in the New Hampshire mountain hamlet of Dixville Notch, where they were immediately counted. For the first time ever, it was a tie: five for Obama, five for Romney.

In New Jersey, one of the states hardest hit by last week's superstorm Sandy, people waited in line impatiently amid rubble and rotting rubbish left by the horrendous storm.

In Hoboken, one makeshift polling station was 40 minutes late in opening, drawing complaints from the 60 people in line.

When the doors finally did open, a volunteer came out and told the grumbling crowd: "Please excuse the appearance of this place, two days ago it was under two feet (0.61 metres) of water."

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