Obama Wins First votes in two small towns

This news updete by geo.tv

WASHINGTON: In the first voting of the day to elect the 44th president of United States Obama defeated his rival by 15 votes to six in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire.

The town, which has a 60-year tradition of being first in the nation to vote, opened its polls at midnight, with turnout of 100%.

George W Bush won there in 2004 on his way to re-election. Tuesday's vote was the first time the town had gone Democrat since 1968.

Another small New Hampshire town, Hart's Location, with a tradition of polls opening at midnight, has also gone for Mr Obama by 17 votes to 10.

Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama have returned to their home states of Arizona and Illinois to vote and hold final rallies.

Mr Obama is holding a steady lead in final opinion polls and record numbers of voters are expected to turn out.

After he spent Monday criss-crossing the country visiting seven crucial states, McCain continued his campaigning into election day with an early morning stump speech in Prescott, Arizona.

He promised supporters that he and his running-mate Sarah Palin would "change things in Washington".

On the eve of the ballot, the Alaska governor was cleared by a state inquiry of violating ethics law.

At his final rally in the suburbs of Washington, DC, Obama appeared before a crowd of 100,000 people.

The man running to be the first African-American president of the US spoke of national unity just a few miles from the scene of the opening battle of the American Civil War.

Earlier in the day, Obama said his grandmother, Madelyn Dunham - who largely raised him as a child - had died aged 86 in Hawaii after losing her battle with cancer.

In a joint statement with his half-sister, he described her as "the cornerstone of our family, and a woman of extraordinary accomplishment, strength, and humility," adding that their debt to her was "beyond measure".



Via nwes