US voters formed long lines outside polling stations across California Tuesday morning to cast their ballots in the 2004 presidential elections as state officials predicted an unprecedented turnout.
About 40 voters lined in beautiful morning sunshine outside the polling 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 (1430 GMT), half hour ahead of the opening of the station.
"I came in Los Angeles 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's polling stations opened at 7 a.m. local time (1500 GMT) and will close at 8 p.m. (0400 GMT). Election officials, predicting unprecedented turnout, had repeatedly urged voters to avoid the early-hour lines by going to the polling stations at mid- day.
California Secretary of State's office said Monday that it was expecting 73 percent of registered voters to cast their ballots Tuesday for president, plus, a near-record number of propositions and other key California races. This will beat the 70 percent turnout record set in 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 of dollars 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 although he 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, 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 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-chief in the middle of war," she told Xinhua, stressing that she felt obliged to vote this year to support Bush despite that she had not voted 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.
Jane Wang, a Chinese-American from Taiwan, was one of the undecided voters that both Bush and Kerry had been wooing until the last minute of their campaigns.
She gave her vote to Kerry at the last minute. "I just think that I like Kerry better, because President Bush is hawkish and he just likes going to war," Wang said.
Although Arcadia is a high-class suburban community where Chinese-Americans account for nearly 40 percent of the city population, not many Chinese-American voters went to vote as usual.
The reason? Wang blamed the reluctance to vote by Chinese Americans on the language and cultural barriers. She said it took her more than one day to go through all the issues on the ballot.
Indeed, there are 16 propositions on the California ballot in addition to the choices for the president and some seats in the state Legislature.
"It is not easy for someone who is not good at English, and of course, the cultural difference also plays a role," she told Xinhua, adding that she was glad that she could vote using the Chinese version of ballot.
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 presidential election.
Thirty percent of registered voters in California said it was very likely polling problems could cast doubt on the winner, while 37 percent said it was somewhat likely. Only 29 percent believe it was not likely.