Record number of voter expected to deluge polls

— -- Voters turned out in droves Tuesday morning along the Eastern Seaboard and Mid-Atlantic states.

Some early problems surfaced with some electronic machines not working and election officials reporting paper jams on other machines.

In some states, voters began lining up as early as 4 a.m. to avoid long lines. Vehicular traffic was light in many cities as workers either took the day off or planned to report to their jobs late so they could cast their votes.

In New Jersey, many voters needed to use paper ballots because of problems with electronic voting machines. And in New York, Board of Elections spokeswoman Valerie Vazquez-Rivera said many people began lining up as early as 4 a.m. at some polling places to avoid long lines, leading to erroneous reports that some sites were not opening on time.

Poll worker John Ritch in Chappaqua, N.Y., said: "By 7:30 this morning, we had as many as we had at noon in 2004."

Gov. Ed Rendell urged voters in Pennsylvania to "hang in there" as state and country officials braced for a huge turnout.

More than 160 people were lined up to vote by the time polls opened at First Presbyterian Church in Allentown.

"I could stay an hour and a half at the front end or three hours at the back end," joked Ronald Marshall, a Democrat.

In several counties surrounding Virginia's capital city of Richmond, voters and elections officials reported paper jams on some machines and balky touch-screen machines in some localities had local registrars considering paper ballots.

At one precinct in Richmond, hundreds of people encircled a branch library by 6 a.m., the scheduled opening of the polls.

But the line grew for another 25 minutes before the poll workers opened the doors. They said the librarian who had a key to the polling place had overslept.

Despite the delay under a steady drizzle, voters cheered as the doors opened at 6:25 a.m.

In Chesapeake, Va., approximately 1,000 voters stood in line to vote, and some people reported malfunctioning machines.