Voting booth is finishing line for close presidential race

Millions of Americans cast ballots today

(CNN) -- Millions of Americans are voting today, many venturing out in poor weather to cast ballots in the closest presidential election in decades.

Democratic Vice President Al Gore, the morning after a 30-hour campaign swing through Florida and other battleground states, voted today in Elmwood, Tennessee -- his home state. Texas Gov. George W. Bush voted at the Travis County Courthouse in Austin, Texas.

Voters wait in line Tuesday before polls open in East Montpelier, Vermont

While most Americans were sleeping, the few dozen voters in two tiny New Hampshire mountain hamlets cast the nation's first votes just after midnight Tuesday. They chose the Texas governor over Gore.

In Hart's Location, the vote was Bush 17, Gore 13 and 1 write-in for Jeffrey Peters, a perennial presidential candidate from nearby Jackson. Hart's Location has 33 registered voters.

Fifty miles to the north, all 27 registered voters in Dixville Notch went to the polls shortly after midnight. The vote tally there was Bush 21, Gore 5, and Green Party candidate Ralph Nader 1.

"It's not close here, but I believe it will be close in New Hampshire and across the country," said Stephen Barba, one of Dixville Notch's nine independents.

Issues this election year have ranged from the future of Social Security to drug prescriptions for the elderly to how to spend the nation's projected federal income tax surplus.

Gore campaign staffers expressed confidence going into the election that polls have indicated might be the closest presidential race since 1976. One spokesman underscored the importance of winning Florida, with its 25 electoral votes.

Gore and Lieberman drink a shot of coffee in Tampa, Florida, early Tuesday

"We're feeling great about Florida, given the momentum toward Al Gore," said campaign spokesman Doug Hattaway. "Just yesterday he was up in Florida as well as Michigan and Pennsylvania, the other big states in the East, so we're certainly working very hard to get out the vote in Florida."

Bush spoke to reporters Tuesday after making phone calls to potential voters, urging them to visit the polls. "We've poured our hearts and souls into this campaign," Bush said, "and the people are going to decide. I trust their will, I trust their wisdom."

When he cast his ballot, GOP vice presidential candidate Dick Cheney was accompanied by his wife Lynne, who voted in their hometown of Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The Cheneys were later scheduled to travel to Bush campaign headquarters in Texas to watch evening returns.

Gov. Bush visits the tossup state of Wisconsin on the final day of campaigning

"It looks like it will be a close election," Cheney said after voting, "but I think one that will hopefully lead to our victory tonight."

Heavy snow was threatening to curb voter turnout in South Dakota, New Mexico, the western part of Texas and southwestern Minnesota.

In northern Texas and Minnesota, heavy rain was making it a little tougher for people to get to the polls. Bad weather also was expected to move into Wisconsin later Tuesday.

Rain forecast for the battleground states of Ohio and Michigan was not as bad as expected. Two other key states -- Florida and California -- were sunny, a nearly perfect day to head to the voting booth.

Voting in Detroit

Voter turnout was reported to be strong in Alabama, Tennessee, Oklahoma, North Carolina and in New York City, where election officials said it was running from moderate to heavy.

Also in New York, Hillary Rodham Clinton cast her ballot, seeking to make U.S. political history by becoming the only sitting first lady ever elected to public office.

President Bill Clinton, who officially becomes a "lame duck" Wednesday, and daughter Chelsea accompanied the first lady early in the morning to a polling station near their home in Chappaqua, New York.

Hillary Clinton's opponent in the hard-fought, expensive Senate race, Republican Rep. Rick Lazio, voted at a polling place in suburban Bay Shore, Long Island, near his home in Brightwaters.

Voters cast their ballots in the gymnasium of Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Church in Beverly Hills, Michigan

Lazio voted with his wife, Patricia, and two daughters, 8-year-old Molly and 7-year-old Kelsey. Molly went into the voting booth with the congressman and Kelsey went in with his wife.

Also on the ballot was Ralph Nader, determined to boost his Green Party into a viable third choice, but who also threatened to be a spoiler, siphoning off possible votes from Gore.

Voters could also pick Pat Buchanan, the Reform Party candidate, whose campaign has generated little fire as conservatives rushed to support Bush.

Gore campaigned into Tuesday morning, making an early appearance for a group of nurses in Tampa, Florida before heading back to his home in Nashville.

"From sea to shining sea, from Miami to Los Angeles where this general election campaign began, from coast to coast and border to border, Americans are coming together, and making a very powerful decision that we are not going to allow ourselves to go back to the policies of the past -- we are going forward to the policies of the future," Gore told a rally in Miami Beach on Monday.

Bush was to spend Election Day at this home in Austin.

"What this country needs is a leader who will reunite us, a leader who will call upon the best. A leader who will put the people's business ahead of needless partisan bickering," Bush told a rally on Monday.

CNN Correspondents Jeanne Meserve, Jonathan Karl, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.