US Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush won a total of 102 electoral votes after claiming the Republican stronghold of Virginia, South Carolina and North Carolina in the 2004 elections on Tuesday, CNN said, citing exit polls.  

Bush has already won 10 states and Kerry nine states with a total electoral votes of 77. A candidate needs a total of 270 electoral votes to win the presidency.

With five percent of the nation's precincts reporting, Kerry has won 3,609,099 votes, or 44 percent, while Bush has claimed 4,586,849 votes, or 56 percent, showed the latest nationwide election returns reported by the Associated Press.

American voters started casting their ballots on Tuesday morning, as polling stations were opened at 6 AM or 7 AM EST (1100 or 1200 GMT) in the states along the east coast. All voting, except in Alaska and Hawaii, were to close at 11 PM EST (0400 GMT, Wednesday).

Bush cast his ballot at his hometown of Crawford, Texas, Tuesday before flying to Washington, and Kerry voted in Boston, Massachusetts.

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

Republicans now hold 227 of the 435 House seats while Democrats hold 205 seats and have the support of the House's lone independent, Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

Preliminary results so far of Senate races showed a tie between Republicans and Democrats, with each side winning five states.

Republicans defeated Democrats in Georgia, Ohio, Missouri, New Hampshire and Alabama, while Democrats registered victory over Republicans in Vermont, Indiana, Connecticut, Illinois and Maryland.

In the Senate races, 34 of the 100 seats in the Senate are at stake, 19 held by Republicans and 15 by Democrats. Currently, Republicans enjoy a majority with 51 seats, with 48 of the rest going to Democrats and one to independents.

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, will vote on the basis of the state tallies in an Electoral College, a system that has been operating since 1788.

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

It was likely that 58-60 percent of eligibles, or 117.5-121 million voters, would vote at about 200,000 polling stations across the country this year, higher than in 2000 when 54 percent of the electorate, or 105.4 million voters, went to the polls.

Results of the voting were expected late Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning.

If no candidate receives a majority, the House of Representatives -- one of the two chambers of the US Congress -- must determine the winner from the three candidates who received the most votes in the Electoral College.

(Xinhua News Agency November 3, 2004)