Florida officials hoping to avoid a repeat of the botched 2000 presidential election reported no early problems as voters cast ballots today under unprecedented scrutiny from foreign monitors and battalions of lawyers.
More than 10 million Floridians were eligible to vote, and lines were long when polling stations opened across the key battleground state that sent Republican George W. Bush to the White House four years ago after five messy weeks of lawsuits and recounts.
"So far, so good," said a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of State. "All of the polling places opened on time today. We haven't heard of any issues."
An activist group complained of dirty tricks, and there were some disputes over provisional ballots in at least one polling station.
Determined to avoid becoming the laughingstock it was in 2000, the state led by the president's younger brother, Governor Jeb Bush, overhauled its creaky punch-card ballot system in favor of computer voting technology.
Nonetheless there were pre-election problems over absentee ballots, fraud allegations and lawsuits challenging voter lists and the ATM-like touch-screen machines to be used by more than 5.5 million voters in the state.
At a polling station in a black neighborhood of Miami's Coconut Grove, voting was largely smooth, although some disputes arose over provisional ballots, which are given to people whose voting status cannot be immediately determined.
"They're doing a really great job," said Ms Sandra Scippio, 47, a librarian's assistant who waited 75 minutes to vote. "One thing they ought to have is refreshments for people to keep them cool and also to keep the temperatures down."
At St Francis de Sales Catholic Church in Miami Beach, more than 100 voters lined up in the parking lot as polls opened. Several tied their dogs to fences and read newspapers and ballot information brochures as they waited to cast their votes.
"There was no problem with the machines, it was easy. Just a lot of people traffic," said Miami Beach resident Ms Julie Territo (23) a first-time voter.