This brought to 188 the total electoral votes that Kerry has won so far, still slightly behind Bush's 197 votes, CNN reported. The candidates need a total of 270 electoral votes to win the elections, which is extremely close this year and it was still impossible to predict the results.

Meanwhile, California voters also sent Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer back to Washington for a third term and approved a 3-billion-dollar bond to fund the controversial stem-cell research.

Kerry's lopsided win in California, a traditional Democrat stronghold, was no surprise. The senator had been maintaining a comfortable lead over President Bush throughout the campaign, during which both candidates largely bypassed the No. state.

This year's voters turnout in California was believed to set a new record since the 1960s. When most of polling stations officially closed at 8 p.m. local time (16:00 GMT), the turnout inLos Angeles County was higher than 73 percent, up 10 percent from last elections in 2000.

Due to long queues at many polling places around the nation's most populous county, the voting was expected to continue for those who were in line at the official "closing" time.

About 40 voters lined in beautiful morning sunshine outside thepolling station at the cross streets of Holly Ave. and Campus Rd. in Arcadia, eastern Los Angeles County, as of 6:30 a.m. local time(14:30 GMT), half hour ahead of the opening of the station.

"I came here earlier in order to avoid the lines, because I have to go to work today," a Philippine-American woman who only identified her first name as Jennifer told Xinhua.

California Secretary of State's office said Monday that it was expecting 73 percent of registered voters to cast their ballots Tuesday, plus, a near-record number of propositions and other key California races. This will beat the 70 percent turnout record setin the 2000 elections.

Voters have more than two candidates for president to choose from the California ballot this year. Jennifer said she voted neither for President Bush nor for Democrat challenger John Kerry,but for the unknown independent candidate Michael Peroutka, state chair of the conservative Constitution Party in Maryland.

"For me, there are four major non-negotiable issues that affected my vote decision: I'm against abortion, stem sell research, homosexual marriage and human cloning," she said.

California, the most populous US state with the highest number of electoral votes at 55, has been largely sidelined by the leading candidates in this year's presidential campaigns. Kerry has been maintaining a comfortable lead over Bush in this traditional Democrats stronghold.

The independent Field Poll issued on the eve of election day showed Kerry was leading 49 percent to Bush's 42 percent. Bush tried in vain to win California in 2000 after spending millions ofdollars in campaign ads and visiting the state many times. This year, he almost abandoned the sunshine state in order to pour his money and energy to his campaigns in the battleground states in the East.

Chuck Fontes, a Latino-American maintenance supervisor and a self-declared Democrat, said he voted for Kerry this time althoughhe voted for Bush in the last elections. "Four years ago, I voted for Bush because I thought he was a better man, but four years later I voted against Bush, because he is worse," he told Xinhua.

Fontes, a veteran, said he made the decision 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.

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 Keneddy 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-chiefin the middle of war," she told Xinhua, stressing that she felt obliged to vote this year to support Bush despite that she had notvoted for many years.

Lebuda said she is not disturbed by the fact that neither candidates paid much attention to California. "When I decided to vote, only their opinions matter," she said.

Due to the extremely tight race this year, most of Californian voters are worried about the fair results of the elections. The independent Field Poll showed Monday that two-thirds of Californians believed it was likely that problems at the polls nationwide will call into question the results of the presidentialelection.

Thirty percent of registered voters in California said it was very likely polling problems could cast doubt on the winner, while37 percent said it was somewhat likely. Only 29 percent believe itwas not likely.