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Voters turn out for historic Super Tuesday
The biggest day ever in US presidential nominating contests began on Tuesday with Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in a close fight and Republican John McCain aiming for a knockout blow against Mitt Romney.
- Agencies
- Published: 22:42 February 5, 2008
- Democratic presidential hopeful Sen Hillary Rodham Clinton (centre), her husband former President Bill Clinton (left) and their daughter, Chelsea (far left background) leave after voting at the Douglas Grafflin Elementary School in Chappaqua, New York, on Tuesday.
- Image Credit: AP
Washington: The biggest day ever in US presidential nominating contests began on Tuesday with Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in a close fight and Republican John McCain aiming for a knockout blow against Mitt Romney.
Twenty-four of the 50 states hold nominating contests for one or both parties on "Super Tuesday," yielding a huge haul of delegates to this summer's nominating conventions to choose the candidates for the November presidential election.
Economic concerns - plunging housing values, rising energy and food prices, jittery financial markets and new data showing a big contraction in the service sector - have eclipsed the Iraq war as voters' top concern, opinion polls show.
Clinton, a New York senator, tried to hold off a late surge by Obama, an Illinois senator who has cut into her once commanding leads in opinion polls nationally and in some states in the coast-to-coast voting.
"The fact that we've made so much progress I think indicates that we've got the right message," Obama said on NBC's "Today" show.
More than half the total Democratic delegates and about 40 per cent of the Republican delegates are up for grabs.
Georgia is the first state to end voting at 7 p.m. EST, although West Virginia Republicans were already casting ballots at a convention that could crown a winner by early afternoon.
Romney, a former venture capitalist, told the West Virginia convention he was the best candidate to handle a troubled economy and uphold conservative principles.
"I'll make sure we reach across the aisle but we don't walk across the aisle," the former Massachusetts governor said.
New Yorkers kicked off the 24-state nationwide primary bonanza before dawn, with a huge turnout expected, especially among energised Democrats, before last polls close in California at night.
Senator Clinton, 60, voice husky from fatigue, vowed to fight on, even through polling day, as opinion surveys picked up a surge by Obama, the 46-year-old senator vying to deny her a return to the White House.
"There are a lot of people who worry that the president just doesn't pay attention," Clinton told CNN. "I want them to know that I get it and I'll be there for them if they're willing to go out and vote for me today."
Obama, speaking to NBC television, said it was likely that the voting would go on for weeks to come before a Democrat presidential nominee was decided. "I suspect that we're going to probably see a split decision tonight and then we're going to have time over the next month, month and a half, to continue the campaign."
Scattered voting problems were reported early in some states - including New Jersey, where the governor had to wait for a touch-screen machine to be fixed - in the Super Tuesday round of political party decision-making. But despite some machine hiccups and delays, early voting appeared to go smoothly.
Clinton voted in suburban New York, accompanied by her husband, former President Bill Clinton. Obama headed back to Illinois after a round of television and radio interviews.
Because Democrats distribute delegates in proportion to their vote statewide and in individual congressional districts, candidates can come away with large numbers of delegates even in states they lose.
Aides for both campaigns predicted that the contest would continue for weeks or months to come.
In contrast, many of the 21 Republican contests are winner-take-all when awarding delegates, meaning a strong day by McCain could give him a commanding lead.
McCain predicted victory at an early-morning rally.
"We're going to win today, we're going to win the nomination and we're going to win the presidency," McCain told a crowd of several hundred in New York's Rockefeller Center following his appearance on NBC's morning show.
Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee won the Republican race in West Virginia, defeating John McCain and Mitt Romney in the first of the day's 24 state contests to pick candidates for the November election, US media projected.
Huckabee, a Baptist preacher, aims to do well among states in the South where evangelicals predominate.
Romney led in the first round of voting but did not have the majority needed to secure a win. Huckabee was projected the winner in the second round.
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