UNITED STATES:VOTERS in Indiana and North Carolina turned out in record numbers yesterday for the biggest remaining primaries in the Democratic presidential race.
Election officials in Indiana said that some precincts had seen more voters in the first few hours after polls opened than they usually see in an entire day.
In North Carolina, nearly half a million people voted by absentee ballot even before the polls opened, and in Indiana almost 200,000 people voted early.
"I can't remember a primary that had this much excitement," said Gary Bartlett, director of the North Carolina Board of Elections.
At stake in the primaries were a total of 187 pledged delegates - 115 in North Carolina and 72 in Indiana - almost as many as in the remaining six contests between now and June 3rd.
Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton visited the states, campaigning from early in the morning as they sought to maximise turnout among their supporters. Each planned election-night rallies in the state most likely to favour them - Mr Obama in Raleigh, North Carolina and Mrs Clinton in Indianapolis, Indiana.
The campaigns blanketed the airwaves with attack adverts in the closing hours of the campaign, taking aim at one another over Mrs Clinton's support for a suspension of the federal gasoline tax. Mr Obama has dismissed the proposal as a gimmick that will do little to help consumers, but Mrs Clinton says it shows that she is more in touch with the concerns of low- and middle-income voters.
Former vice-presidential candidate John Edwards, who dropped out of the 2008 race in January, praised Mr Obama and Mrs Clinton but added that he would not be endorsing either.
In an interview with People magazine, Mr Edwards said that there was too much of the "old politics" about Mrs Clinton, but he admired the way she had fought back in the campaign.
"I think her tenacity shows a real strength that's inside her," he said.
Mr Edwards praised Mr Obama for wanting to bring about "serious change and a different way of doing things" and said it would be "a great symbolic thing to have an African-American who could be president".
He was less enthusiastic, however, about the Illinois senator's policy prescriptions.
"Sometimes I want to see more substance under the rhetoric," he said.