MIAMI, Oct 19 (AFP) - As the presidential candidates focus much of their attention on Florida, thousands of people in the key swing state cast ballots in early voting marked by long lines and some highly publicized hiccups.
Despite the initial glitches, election officials Tuesday were confident voting would go ahead smoothly, and hailed the high turnout.
In Miami-Dade alone, almost 12,000 people cast their ballots on Monday, when early voting got underway.
"This is very encouraging ... people are excited about voting," said Seth Kaplan, spokesman for the Miami electoral authorities.
Unlike some other counties, Miami-Dade reported no problems, other than long lines of voters.
In nearby Broward country, a computer glitch left poll workers without ballot information for several hours on Monday.
But elections officials stressed that the voting machines themselves worked well, and that 7,373 voters cast their ballots.
In Palm Beach County, the focus of much of the 2000 chaos that delayed the outcome of the presidential election for five weeks, a Democratic state legislator said she wasn't given a complete ballot when she asked to use a paper vote instead of the electronic touch-screen machine.
The machines are used to replace the now infamous punch-card system blamed for much of the 2000 debacle. But critics point out they do not print out a record of the vote, which would make it impossible to conduct a manual recount if needed.
In Orange county, a computer crash paralyzed voting in Orlando and its immediate suburbs for a few hours.
In Duval county, embattled elections supervisor John Stafford resigned Monday, citing health reasons. He had come under sharp criticism for opening only one early voting station in the sprawling city of Jacksonville.
Officials said that by 5:00 pm Monday, 1,200 people had cast their ballots in Jacksonville.