Crashing voting machines and other computer glitches forced at least two US states to extend voting hours on Tuesday, but balloting in most places was, as one voter said, a 'piece of cake'.
As millions of Americans cast their ballots in crucial mid-term congressional elections, early fears of new voting dramas emerged as soon as polls opened -- especially in Ohio and Florida, the two battleground states scarred by voting dramas in 2000 and 2004.
In one elementary school in the predominantly black district of East Cleveland, Ohio, all 12 machines went down for two hours when voting opened at 6:30 am (1130 GMT), according to an AFP correspondent at the scene.
Polling officials in the Midwestern state refused to hand out paper ballots until a lawyer for the watchdog group Election Protection showed up.
Sporadic problems were also reported in Indiana, Colorado, Tennessee, Utah, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Maryland and there were various claims by Democrats that under-pressure Republicans were trying to depress turnout.
In Lebanon County, located in the Eastern state of Pennsylvania, a court ordered the region's 55 polling stations to remain open for an extra hour, until 9:00 p.m. (0200 GMT) following a programming error in the voting machines that forced some voters to use paper ballots.
"At least one machine at each polling station was misprogrammed," Elaine Ludwig, the county's chief clerk of elections, told AFP. "I am so up to my ears trying to get this thing rectified."
Voting hours were also extended in Delaware County, in the Midwestern state of Indiana, because of glitches with the electronic voting machines at 75 precincts, an official told AFP.
"The polls will close at 8:40 p.m. rather than 6:00 p.m. because a computer error prevented voters from casting ballots in various precincts," said Kristy Eller, the county's deputy clerk.
In Colorado's Denver County, a power outage led to a computer breakdown that prompted the mountain state's Democratic Party to seek a court order to extend voting.
Doug Chapin, director of Electionline.org, a non-partisan group that tracks election changes, told AFP that problems were also reported in Utah and several other states.
"What we're seeing so far are widespread but still significant problems that state and local officials are having to deal with," he said. "We were expecting these kinds of problems but I am a little bit surprised that ... they are in so many different places."
Chapin warned that some of the computer problems and other glitches could be used to challenge the result in tightly contested races.
"Anytime you have these kinds of problems, at least theoretically, they can be used as a basis for a challenge," he said.
The FBI meanwhile said it was investigating complaints of voter intimidation in the Eastern state of Virginia where many people reported receiving intimidating phone calls.
In Florida's Broward County, notorious for the "hanging chad" debacle in the disputed race that saw Bush triumph over Al Gore in 2000, new problems were reported.
In one precinct, 14 voting machines stopped working for 90 minutes, prompting some voters to walk away. Service was later restored.
In one polling station in Friendship Heights, Maryland, just outside Washington, one of the 16 voting machines failed as soon as the polls opened.
Others worked well, but did not assuage voter concerns about whether their vote cast by electronic machines was safe.
"They are very user-friendly and there is good support, but I still wish they had a printout," voter Chris Strom told AFP after casting her ballot.
But voter Donald Rollert said he had no problem with the computers.
"It was a piece of cake" he said after voting.
At a polling place nearby things were also going well, after fears that problems with voter cards experienced during primary elections in September could resurface.
"It went very smoothly. Much better than last time ... where I was disenfranchised for the first time in 40 years", said Jeff Ross, 56.
"The only question is, 'Does your vote exist?'"
At another polling station, even voters well into their 80s had no problems with computerised systems -- though several used large magnifying glasses.
Both Republicans and Democrats deployed battalions of lawyers and poll watchers to observe the vote, especially in areas where problems were
expected.
The Department of Justice also dispatched 800 lawyers to certain jurisdictions "to ensure that everything with regard to federal laws is being complied with".