Record number of voters expected to deluge polls

— -- Long lines and malfunctioning machines greeted election officials on Tuesday as polls across the country were deluged by people wanting to vote in this historic race between black Democratic candidate Barack Obama and Republican John McCain.

Voters turned out in droves as polls opened early 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.

The nonpartisan Election Protection Coalition said it is going to call on Virginia officials to extend the state's voting hours by two hours because of hundreds of reports it has received about long lines and problems at the polls. Virginia's polls are set to close at 7 p.m. ET.