The top two candidates of the US presidential election, Republican incumbent George W. Bush and Democratic Senator John Kerry, cast their votes in their hometown on Tuesday, while US voters went to the polls to choose between them the country's president for the next four years.

Kerry cast his ballot at the State House afternoon in his hometown Boston, urging again voters to make choice to give the United States a fresh start.

Before heading to Boston, Kerry called for voters in the battleground state of Wisconsin to go out and vote for "a new beginning" and "a change of direction."

"You have a choice, all Americans have this choice today," the senator from Massachusetts told voters in La Crosse.

Accusing Bush of being responsible for job losses, high deficit, rising health care costs and a failed policy in Iraq, Kerry said Bush "made a choice without a plan to win the peace."

"We need a commander in chief who knows how to bring other countries to the table," he said.

Earlier, Bush cast his vote at the polling station near his ranch in his hometown Crawford, Texas, and voiced confidence that he is going to win the election.

"It is a wonderful feeling to vote ... I believe I am going to win," Bush said, along with his wife Laura Bush and their two daughters. "I trust the judgment of the people."

After casting his vote, Bush appeared in Columbus, Ohio to make one last get-out-the-vote stop.

No Republican had won the White House without winning Ohio, a state that has lost some 230,000 jobs since Bush took office. The two candidates were running neck and neck in the state.

"The people will make the right decision," Bush said, adding his goal, if reelected, would be to "bring people together, set an agenda, which would be to make sure America is secure, expand our prosperity and move forward and bring Republicans and Democrats together."

Polling stations opened at 6 or 7 AM EST (11:00 or 12:00 GMT) in the states along the eastern coast, and all voting, except Alaska and Hawaii, were to close at 11 PM EST (04:00 GMT, Wednesday). Results of the voting were expected late Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning.

The first votes on the Election Day were cast and counted in two tiny towns in the northeastern state of New Hampshire.

In Hart's Location, Bush and Kerry each received 15 votes, and independent candidate Ralph Nader got one. In Dixville Notch, 19 of the 26 registered voters went for Bush, while six voted for Kerry.

Voters are waiting in long lines at polling places, which opened at 6 AM (09:00 GMT), across New York City.

At a poll site near 23rd Street, Manhattan, poll worker Peter O'Neil said the four poll machines at the site have been busy since the poll started and he expected a turnout much higher than last election.

"Turnout in this area has been strong, and this year it will be even higher," he said.

Voter Flanders Vacon came to the polls with his four-year-old daughter. He said despite the alleged terrorist attacks and fears of election disputes he remained confident at the voting system.

"That's why I brought my daughter with me. I think it is a good experience for her," Vacon said.

New York police beefed up security in sensitive areas. Police presence was heightened in the financial district, the City Hall and areas near poll sites.

Long lines of voters waiting outside polling stations were also seen across California as state officials predicted an unprecedented turnout.

California Secretary of State's office said Monday that it was expecting 73 percent of registered voters to cast their ballots.

Kerry has been maintaining a comfortable lead over Bush in California, the most populous state with the highest number of electoral votes at 55 and traditionally a Democratic stronghold.

Outside the polling station at the cross streets of Holly Ave. and Campus Rd. in Arcadia, eastern Los Angeles County, Chuck Fontes, a Latino-American maintenance supervisor, told Xinhua he voted for Kerry this time although he voted for Bush in the last elections.

Fontes, a veteran, said he decided to vote for Kerry after he heard about Bush's statements indicating that he will reinstitute the draft.

"I'm just against the draft, absolutely," he said, adding Kerry could be a better commander-in-chief for dealing with the mess in Iraq.

But Rusty Lebuda, a legal secretary, disagreed with Fontes' views and voted for Bush, although her daughter voted for Kerry.

A migrant from Boston where her family lived in the same area with the famous Democrat Kennedy Family, Lebuda argued that the American people should support President Bush "to let him finish his mission in Iraq."

"We are in the war. It's wrong to change the commander-in-chief in the middle of war," she told Xinhua.

A federal appeals court ruled early Tuesday morning that the Republican Party could place thousands of people inside polling stations in Ohio to challenge the eligibility of voters casting ballots in the US presidential election.

The 2-1 ruling by a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reversed earlier rulings by two lower courts blocking the challenges, a reversal which dealt a blow to Democrats who argued that the challengers would intimidate minority voters.

According to the country's election system, Americans do not directly choose the president. Instead, after ballots are counted in each state, state representatives, called electors, vote based on the state tallies in an Electoral College, a system which has been operating since 1788.

There are altogether 538 electors and a minimum of 270 electoral votes is necessary to win the Electoral College.

The voters will also elect a vice president, 34 senators who account for one-third of the Senate, all the 435 representatives and 11 governors.

(Xinhua News Agency November 3, 2004)