US: Voting was brisk in key states and districts in yesterday's mid-term elections, but there were widespread reports of difficulties with electronic voting machines and confusion over new voter identification rules in some states, writes Denis Staunton in Washington
In Virginia, the FBI was looking into complaints of voter intimidation after Democratic senate candidate Jim Webb's campaign claimed that supporters received calls from outside the state telling them their polling station had changed or warning that they would be arrested if they tried to vote.
Before voting started, Mr Webb was neck-and-neck with Republican senator George Allen, whose campaign denied any involvement in the phone calls. Reports from Virginia suggested that voting was unusually heavy for a mid-term election, with some party workers predicting that the final turnout could be above 65 per cent.
Programming errors with electronic voting machines caused delays in Indiana, Ohio, Mississippi and Florida, and some polling stations in Ohio opened late because election workers could not operate the machines.
Two Republican members of Congress in Ohio were initially told they could not vote because election officials said they had the wrong identification documents.
All 435 seats in the House of Representatives were up for election yesterday, along with one-third of the Senate's 100 seats and 36 state governorships. Democrats needed to gain 15 seats for a majority in the House and six seats for a Senate majority.
The Democrats' best hope of picking up Senate seats lay in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Montana, Missouri, Rhode Island, Virginia and Tennessee.
Some political analysts predicted that bad weather in Ohio and Tennessee could affect the outcome, with heavy rain in mainly rural, Republican districts in both states.
National committees for the two parties have spent about $225 million (€176 million) for or against candidates, concentrating their resources in 10 Senate races and 66 House contests that could determine who controls Congress.
Republicans spent about $81 million in 53 congressional districts, mostly on TV ads criticising Democratic challengers.
Democrats spent $64 million in 56 congressional districts, most of them Republican-held.
Democratic supporters were already gathering in Washington DC's Hyatt Regency Hotel by mid-afternoon yesterday for a victory party organised by the party's two campaign committees.
Republicans were not planning any celebration and the White House said that President George Bush would be watching the results come in with his political advisor Karl Rove.
Mr Bush declined to speculate on the outcome yesterday morning, after he and First Lady Laura Bush voted near their ranch in Crawford, Texas.
The Republican National Committee warned that exit polls should be treated with caution, claiming that they were traditionally tilted in favour of Democrats.