RALEIGH, N.C. – A majority of North Carolina voters support the stimulus package Barack Obama has been pushing in Congress- but when it comes to the bailouts for the financial and auto industries, they’re strongly opposed, the newest survey from Public Policy Polling finds.

According to PPP, 50 percent of respondents said they support the stimulus, with 39 percent opposed and 11 percent unsure.

The divide falls largely along party lines, with 80 percent of Democrats but only 16 percent of Republicans in support. Independents oppose it by a 53-33 margin.

Reaction to the stimulus seems to be more of a referendum on whether people like Barack Obama than anything else.

Voter blocs that he did well with in November – women, African Americans, young voters- are all in strong support. Ones that he did not do as well with- whites, men- are more opposed.

“The economic stimulus package is very complicated, and it seems a safe bet that most voters don’t really understand it,” said Dean Debnam, President of Public Policy Polling. “What that means for public opinion is folks are forming their positions by taking cues from people they trust, leading Democrats who respect Barack Obama to be largely supportive, and Republicans to follow their Senate leadership in opposition.”

Two issues that there is not a lot of division among North Carolinians about are the bailouts of the financial and auto industries. Only 28 percent support the financial bailout and just 27 percent are in favor of the one for the car industry. In those cases Democrats, Republicans, and independents are all opposed although Democrats are somewhat more supportive than the other two groups.

PPP surveyed 1,105 North Carolina voters from Feb. 6 to 8. The survey’s margin of error is +/-3.0%. Other factors, such as refusal to be interviewed and weighting, may introduce additional error that is more difficult to quantify.

Complete results can be found at www.publicpolicypolling.com.

RALEIGH, N.C. – The long waits that plagued early voting in North Carolina haven’t turned up on Election Day.

Several counties reported some lines of a few dozen people when polls opened Tuesday morning. But they quickly abated as sites processed those pre-workday voters. North Carolina’s largest counties reported little or no waits at polling sites throughout much of the day, and some precincts only had a trickle of voters coming to cast a ballot.

The overwhelming turnout that sustained through the early voting period that ended Saturday processed some 2.6 million voters. Because of that, elections officials expected about 2 million people to vote Tuesday.

State Board of Elections director Gary Bartlett now says the turnout will fall below his earlier guess.

Lines stretched around buildings and crossed city blocks as people waited to cast ballots in the historic presidential race between Barack Obama and John McCain. Touchscreen voting machines malfunctioned in some precincts, yet voting Tuesday appeared to go smoothly overall.
 
The biggest trouble was big crowds. But folks seemed to take it in stride.

“People are happy and smiling,” Sen. Benjamin Cardin said as he voted at a Maryland school. “People are very anxious to be voting. They really think they are part of history, and they are.”

In the East, electronic machine glitches forced some New Jersey voters to cast paper ballots. In New York, eager voters started lining up before dawn, prompting erroneous reports that some precincts weren’t opening on time.

In the West, Californians also faced long lines, but voting went smoothly. In Orange County, south of Los Angeles, about 400 people were on hand to treat problems with the county’s all-electronic voting system, said Brett Rowley of the registrar’s office.

“We’ve got paper ballots as a backup,” he said.

Heavy rain plunged a handful of Los Angeles polling places into the dark, forcing some to move voting booths outside until electricity was restored. Voting didn’t stop.

Election officials predicted turnout rates as high as 80 percent in California, the country’s most populous state and the highest holder of electoral votes. In Virginia, State Board of Elections executive secretary Nancy Rodrigues said she expected 75 percent of the state’s registered voters to cast ballots by Tuesday night.
  
Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell urged voters to “hang in there” as state and country officials braced for a huge turnout in that hotly contested state. More than 160 people were lined up when the polls opened at First Presbyterian Church in Allentown. “I could stay an hour and a half at the front end or three hours at the back end,” joked Ronald Marshall, a black Democrat.

Hundreds converged on polling precincts in Missouri, another crucial battleground state. Norma Storms, a 78-year-old resident of Raytown, said her driveway was filled with cars left by voters who couldn’t get into nearby parking lots.      

“I have never seen anything like this in all my born days,” she said. “I am just astounded.”

In some places the wait was longer than two hours.

“Well, I think I feel somehow strong and energized to stand here even without food and water,” said Alexandria, Va., resident Ahmed Bowling, facing a very long line. “What matters is to cast my vote.”

Some voting advocates worried that – tolerant voters or no – the nation’s myriad election systems could stagger later in the day, when people getting off work hit the polls.

“We have a system that wasn’t ready for huge turnout,” said Tova Wang of government watchdog group Common Cause. “People have to wait for hours. Some people can do that. Some people can’t. This is not the way to run a democracy.”
 
Ohio, which experienced extreme voting delays in the last hours of the 2004 election, had some jammed paper problems in Franklin County. “We’re taking care of things like that,” said elections spokesman Ben Piscitelli. “But there’s nothing major or systemic.”

Perhaps the most bizarre barrier to voting was a truck that hit a utility pole in St. Paul, Minn.’s Merriam Park neighborhood. The accident knocked power out for about 90 minutes to two polling locations. Joe Mansky, Ramsey County’s elections manager, said voting continued at those sites.
 
Election judges said the ballots were kept secure at one of the locations until the power was restored and the ballots could be run through an electronic machine, while a backup generator kicked in at the other site.

Late Monday, McCain’s campaign sued the Virginia electoral board, trying to force the state to count late-arriving military ballots from overseas. No hearing has been set.
 
McCain, the Republican candidate and a POW during the Vietnam War, asked a federal judge to order state election officials to count absentee ballots mailed from abroad that arrive as late as Nov. 14.

Lawsuits have become common fodder in election battles. The 2000 recount meltdown in Florida was ultimately decided by the Supreme Court.

What is uncommon about Tuesday’s contest is the sheer number of voters expected to descend on more than 7,000 election jurisdictions across the country. Voter registration numbers are up 7.3 percent from the last presidential election.

WASHINGTON – Break out the popcorn. As the election results roll in tonight, we’re in for a captivating show on television. Here are five things to watch for as John McCain and Barack Obama duke it out for the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House.

Key Early States – Virtually all the battleground states this year were in the Republican column in 2004, underscoring McCain’s challenge. Virginia, where polls close at 7 p.m., will offer an early sign of the direction of the race, followed by Ohio and North Carolina at 7:30 p.m.

If McCain loses any of those states, which went for Bush in 2004, he will have a hard time winning.

At 8 p.m., polls close in Pennsylvania, the one blue state from 2004 both candidates hit Monday, the final, full day of campaigning. Though polls give Obama a significant advantage here, McCain is hoping to pull off an upset. If he doesn’t, it will signal real problems for McCain.

Other early, too-close-to-call states closing at 8 p.m. include Florida, the pivotal state from 2000 election, and Missouri, which has chosen the winner in every presidential race since 1956.

Long lines – An early indication of how long it will take to declare a winner tonight will be today’s lines at polling places.

Some watchdog groups warn that states aren’t prepared to handle a crush of new voters. The states say they are, but that voters can expect long lines as polls close.

Long lines could delay final tallies, particularly if turnout is high in Western battleground states like Colorado and New Mexico, where polls close at 9 p.m. and Nevada, where polls close at 10 p.m. (Times are Eastern.)

Black turnout – Pay close attention to turnout of African-American voters in key Southern states. A bigger-than-expected tide – sparked by Obama’s candidacy – could add electoral votes from Georgia, North Carolina and other states with large black populations to the Democrat’s tally. A smaller-than-expected turnout could keep those states in the Republican camp, as in 2004.

Beyond the presidential race, GOP operatives worry that a strong showing among black voters – who trend overwhelmingly Democratic – will swing down-ticket Senate and House races in the South, helping Democrats expand their majority in Congress.

Polls – National polls and surveys in key battleground states suggest Obama will win, likely by a big electoral vote margin. We’ll know tonight whether the pollsters deserve praise for their soothsaying skills or egg on their faces.

2008 has proved tougher than usual for pollsters. The expanded pool of voters, the wild card of Obama’s race and problems reaching younger voters on cell phones have made it difficult to determine exactly who will turn out and how they’ll vote.

Margin of victory – We should know the results by Wednesday morning. Whoever wins, conventional wisdom holds that a big victory equals a big mandate, making it easier to get things done.

While that’s not always the case, the new president’s effectiveness will be influenced by the results of congressional races throughout the country. Democrats are expected to pick up seats in both the House and the Senate. The question is how many.

Obama may find it easier to push his agenda through an expanded Democratic Congress, while McCain would likely be forced to make more concessions.