Polls open for Election Day

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, Nov.5) -- Polls opened Tuesday as voters prepared to decide who will live in the White House for the next four years. Also up for grabs: 11 governorships, one third of the U.S. Senate, the House of Representatives and numerous state and local offices.

Out of 185,000 polling stations nationwide, the residents of two tiny New Hampshire communities were the first to cast ballots in the 1996 election. Shortly after midnight, Dixville Notch and Hart's Location cast 31 votes for Republican candidate Bob Dole, 20 for President Clinton and five for Reform Party candidate Ross Perot.

Experts were predicting an overall low turnout among 148 million registered voters despite massive registration and get-out-the-vote efforts around the country.

Only 55.2 percent of eligible adults voted in 1992 when Clinton won the presidency and turnout slumped to 38.8 percent in the Congressional elections of 1994 when Republicans took majority control of both chambers.

Clinton and Dole wound down their campaign sprints and headed for their respective hometowns of Little Rock, Arkansas, and Russell, Kansas, to await the returns.

Clinton blames government shutdowns on Republicans	(355K/32 sec. WAV sound)
Dole calls Democrats' portrayal of his Medicare stance a ploy	(347K/31 sec. WAV sound)
Clinton urges people to vote for the 21st century	(185K/15 sec. WAV sound)
Dole questions the Administration's integrity	(201K/18 sec. WAV sound)

Clinton spent his last day hop-scotching across the country with speeches in New Hampshire, Ohio, Kentucky, Iowa and South Dakota before arriving in Arkansas.

"I am now speaking at the last rally of the last campaign I will ever run," Clinton told a raucous late-night rally in Sioux City, South Dakota, his final stop before Election Day.

"This is the greatest country in human history because we have created a system in which you are the boss," Clinton said in asking voters renew his contract for four more years.

In the final hours of his 96-hour "march to victory" Dole made an early appearance Tuesday in Independence, Missouri, the hometown of President Harry Truman. Truman pulled off one of America's greatest political upsets when he defied opinion polls to defeat Republican Tom Dewey in 1948.

"What was true for Harry Truman in 1948 will be true for Bob Dole and Jack Kemp in 1996," Dole said. "The people are once again going to win this election today."

Polls begin closing in the states of Kentucky and Indiana at 6 p.m. EST (2300 GMT) and first results are expected soon after.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Polls open for Election Day

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