In Dark and Cold, Americans Cast First Ballots

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

Many were patient, some were jittery and still others -- those still enduring power outages and the mountainous mess and wreckage left by superstorm Sandy last week -- were perhaps understandably 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 center for more than half an hour when the basement gymnasium turned polling station threw open its doors at precisely 6 am (1100 GMT).

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

That equivalent of a referee firing a starting gun echoed up and down the East Coast, with polling stations further west -- in battleground states like Ohio that could determine the winner -- following suit later.

Blue tape on the sidewalk 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 favoring 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 Agence France Presse 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.

"I know it's going to be a tight race," added an older voter who, like many, preferred not to give his name -- perhaps not surprising in a part of greater Washington that is thick with national security contractors.

"They enlarged the (voting) facility, so they must have known the same thing."

Down in balmy Florida, another critical swing state and the one which decided the 2000 election for George W. Bush, long lines formed in the dark at polling stations.

One young woman, first-time voter Mary Ann Weber, said she showed up four hours early to be among the first to weigh in.

The 20-year-old architecture student at University of Miami said she backed Obama because she sees him as a force for social change.

But another early-rising voter at that auditorium near Little Havana, Cuban-American Ruben Salazar, 72, sees Romney as better for the U.S. economy, saddled by naggingly high unemployment as robust recovery from the Great Recession proves elusive.

"We need to change this president. I need a job for my wife, for my daughter, a better future for my grandsons, and that's why I'll vote for Romney", said Salazar. He showed up more than three hours before the polling station opened.

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 of water."