Election Day 2008: Live Blogging From Coast To Coast

We will provide updates throughout the day until the polls begin closing in East Coast states. Please use the comments section to share your voting and other Election Day experiences. This post will be updated periodically and moved to the top of the site. There are newer posts below, so please keep scrolling.

6:00pm: Polls are closing in Indiana and parts of Kentucky. Virginia, South Carolina, Florida, and New Hampshire follow at 7:00; Ohio and West Virginia at 7:30; another 18 states at 8, including the important swing states of Pennsylvania and Missouri; North Carolina at 8:30, and onward into the Mountain States and Far West.

5:01pm: With less than two and a half hours to go before the polls close, there were long lines but relatively few problems in the pivotal state of Ohio, where turnout is expected to reach a record 80 percent. The state encountered numerous voting problems in 2004, which was won by George Bush by a hair’s breadth.

4:22pm: North Carolina election officials said Election Day turnout is down because 2.6 million ballots already had been cast in early voting that ended Saturday, leaving about 2 million people to vote today.

4:00pm: Wall Street had its largest Election Day rally in 24 years. The Dow Jones industrial average was up 3.28 percent, or 305.46 points. The broader Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index was up 4.08 percent, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq was up 3.12 percent. Historically, Wall Street has enjoyed a bounce in the fourth quarter after a presidential election as investors breathe a sigh of relief that the long election cycle, with its accompanying uncertainty, has ended.

3:21pm: Barack Obama made a final campaign stop in swing-state Indiana, where he is running neck and neck with John McCain, before returning home to Chicago where he will join his family to watch election returns before leading what his expected to be a huge rally in Grant Park.

3:05pm: John McCain made final stops in Colorado and New Mexico, two swing states where he trails in the polls, before returning to Phoenix for a more modest rally at a resort hotel.

2:21pm: Casinos in Atlantic City, New Jersey were nearly deserted. Workers said some of this had to do with Election Day, but mostly with the overall malaise in the gaming industry.

1:26pm: Rain in some areas of the country is causing optical scanner problems because of wet ballots, while e-voting machine problems were reported in Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Virginia, including the need to repeatedly reboot.

1:12pm: Several major problems were reported in the key swing state of Pennsylvania, including voting machine breakdowns in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Bethlehem. Some Philadelphia precincts have run out of paper ballots that were pressed into service because of machine malfunctions.

12:50pm: John McCain voted in Phoenix.

11:42am: Sarah Palin voted in Wasilla, Alaska and then left for Phoenix where she will join John McCain for a rally tonight.

11:26am: Voting is now underway in Alaska and Hawaii.

11:26am: A record had been set in Los Angeles County even before the polls opened this morning with 14 percent of voters using early balloting. A record 29 percent voted early in Orange County. Across Southern California, rainy skies gave way to sun and lines at most polling stations were long.

11:20am: In Kansas City, Missouri, there were voting delays because some precincts had received wrong voter registration lists.

11:07am: Hackers broke into the e-mail system of George Mason University in Fairfax County, Virginia and sent students a forged message from the school’s provost stating that Election Day had been moved to November 5.

10:53am: Stocks surged in early trading, building on recent rallies as millions of Americans hit hard by the weakened economy headed to the polls. Lending rates continued to improve in response to efforts of U.S. and world governments to get money flowing again.

10:45am: Local Republican Party officials are claiming that their court-appointed poll watchers have been ejected from at least a half a dozen polling stations in Philadelphia because of their party status. The Democratic Party-dominated city has a long and storied history of Election Day irregularities.

10:35am: Voting is now underway in all contiguous 48 states.

10:01am: There are severe problems in rainy Richmond, Virginia where officials had to switch to paper ballots after machines broke down. There is a shortage of paper ballots, although election officials says they are deploying more machines.

9:37am: My son votes in the Maryland suburbs of Washington after waiting in line for an hour and a half. Residents tell him they have never seen lines so long.

9:20am: Voting is now underway in 40 states.

9:01am: Lines of between four and six hours long are reported in some locations in Ohio, a crucial swing state. In New Jersey, the state registration database is operating too slowly to update with the names of recent registrants.

8:40am: Voting problems are reported in several states but appear to be the most severe in Virginia, where there are reports of broken machines, long lines and a lack of parking. Some polling places did not open as scheduled. In Tallahassee, voters showed up at polls only to find ballots are missing, while in Mississippi, it was reported that some registrations were not processed.

8:00am: Joe Biden voted near his Greenville, Delaware home before departing for Chicago with 30 family members, including his 91-year-old mother.

7:49am: Barack Obama voted in Chicago.

7:30am: Voting is now underway in 26 states.

7:12am: I vote at my neighborhood public library in a small Mid Atlantic college town. In 2004, there were five people in line when the polls opened. In 2006, there were three. Today there were 37.

6:25am: A national election expert says that turnout could reach 66 percent, matching or even possibly breaking a record set a century ago. In 1908, two-thirds of eligible voters went to the polls, electing William Howard Taft over William Jennings Bryan to keep the White House in Republican hands after Teddy Roosevelt had vowed to not seek a third term.

6:00am: The first polls open in some East Coast cities.

5:30am: The national Election Day weather map shows that much of the West and part of the East coasts to be wet with generally sunny skies in the Midwest. Sun is forecast for the swing states of Florida, Missouri and Ohio, and in most of Pennsylvania.

12:55am: In Hart’s Location, a second village in northeastern New Hampshire, Barack Obama won 17 votes, John McCain 10 votes and Ron Paul two write-in votes. Bob Barr and Ralph Nader, who also were on the ballot, received no votes. President Bush carried the village in 2004 and 2000.

12:30am: Barack Obama emerged victorious over John McCain in the first returns of the 2008 presidential race, winning 15 of 21 votes cast in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire. People in the isolated village in New Hampshire’s northeast corner voted just after midnight, and it was the first time since 1968 that it leaned Democratic. Ralph Nader, who also was on the ballot, received no votes. President Bush carried the village in 2004 and 2000.

12:00am: With many expressing hopes of avoid long lines on Election Day, about 23 million Americans — about a third of all voters — have already gone to the polls, shattering the early-voting record. According to unofficial estimates, Democrats cast many more early votes than Republicans, even in states where registered Republicans outnumber Democrats. In North Carolina, New Mexico and Colorado, the number of voters who have already cast their ballots has reached more than 70 percent of the number who voted in those states in 2004.