Bush and Kerry face voters amid heavy turnout

10.20am UPDATE

WASHINGTON - Unusually large numbers of voters turned out on Tuesday to choose between US President George W Bush and Democratic Senator John Kerry after a deadlocked White House campaign marked by deep divisions over the war in Iraq, the battle against terrorism and the economy.

With the electorate polarised over the country's direction three years after the September 11, 2001 attacks inspired a short-lived unity, as many as 125 million Americans were voting to set the nation's course for the next four years.

Polls showed the race was extraordinarily close, with surveys showing a dead heat nationally and indicating most of the 10 hardest-fought battleground states could tip either way.

Long lines formed at polling stations and voters were unusually motivated amid lingering bitterness over the 2000 election, when Bush lost the popular vote to Democrat Al Gore but narrowly won the Electoral College after the US Supreme Court stopped the vote recount in Florida.

As in 2000, the presidential spotlight on Tuesday will be on Florida along with the new showdown state of Ohio, both won by Bush four years ago and the biggest toss-up states in the quest for the 270 Electoral College votes needed for victory.

Officials in Florida, where more than 10 million people are eligible to vote, reported long lines but no early problems at polling stations.

There were scattered reports of voting difficulties and irregularities elsewhere, including slashed tires on cars that were to take voters to the polls in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and allegations of ballot stuffing in a poor black Philadelphia neighbourhood. The Philadelphia allegations were quickly denied by the District Attorney.

Republicans and Democrats said the election outcome may not be known quickly, and both sides fielded armies of lawyers to challenge close results and girded for the possibility of another long legal fight like the five-week battle in 2000.

Bush said he was confident after voting at the firehouse near his Crawford, Texas, ranch and said the election boiled down to whom voters trusted to secure the country.

"I believe I'm going to win," Bush said before flying to the battleground state of Ohio to call voters from a Republican phone bank and then returning to Washington. "My hope, of course, is that this election ends tonight."

"I've given it my all," he said.

In his own drive to get people to the polls, Kerry met Democratic activists in La Crosse, Wisconsin, a battleground state that is one of the few to allow same-day registration, and hammered Bush over the Iraq war.

"You have a choice, all Americans have this choice today," the Massachusetts senator said. "George Bush made his choices ... He made a choice without a plan to win the peace."

"I am very confident we made the case for change," he later said after voting at the Massachusetts State House in Boston.

Kerry must win either Florida or Ohio to have a realistic shot at victory, while a Bush loss in Florida would leave him in danger unless he took Pennsylvania or some states such as Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa -- all won by Gore in 2000.

Independent candidate Ralph Nader could play the role of spoiler, although his support in polls this year is much less than in 2000, when some say he helped tip the race to Bush.

In addition to the presidential race, Americans will also decide which party holds power in Congress and will vote on governorships in 11 states, with Bush's Republicans favoured to retain control of the Senate and House of Representatives.

More than 105.4 million Americans voted in 2000, representing 51.21 per cent of the voting-age population, but as many as 20 million more could vote in the current election.

According to Federal Election Commission figures, the highest turnout in recent decades was in 1960, when about 63 per cent of the voting age population cast ballots.

"We are hearing that the lines are longer than they have ever been in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida," said Chellie Pingree, president of nonpartisan Common Cause group, saying most reports suggested exceptionally heavy turnout.

There were scattered reports of voting difficulties, including broken voting machines and scarce provisional ballots that allow voters not on the rolls to cast a vote that is counted if their eligibility is later proven.

"Long lines ... no one directing you where to go," said Sally Woznicki, 40, who waited 45 minutes to vote at the Evangelical Church in Hudson, Ohio, a heavily Republican area southeast of Cleveland.

Poll monitors in Philadelphia reported numerous problems especially in black neighbourhoods that included broken voting machines and alleged attempts to intimidate voters.

In one legal battle, US Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens allowed Republicans to challenge voter qualifications inside polling stations in Ohio, a development that Democrats fear could be used to intimidate their core voters.

The voting concluded an unusually close and contentious campaign focused on Iraq and national security, Bush defended his doctrine of pre-emptive war and criticising Kerry as too liberal, too inconsistent and too weak to lead.

Kerry countered by challenging Bush's "go-it-alone" international approach, his decision to go to war in Iraq without enough allied backing and his refusal to acknowledge mistakes and correct them.

Kerry also attacked Bush's tax cuts and job losses during the Republican administration, while Bush said the tax cuts had helped the US economy recover.

- REUTERS