Breakdowns are plaguing polling places in Philadelphia, Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio. Problems are also reported in New York state, Virginia and Florida.

Voting machine malfunctions and other problems were exacerbating long lines at polling places in several key battlegrounds as voting got underway on the East Coast and in the Midwest this morning, election monitors reported.

There have already been breakdowns in Philadelphia, Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio, according to reports gathered by the Election Protection Coalition, a cooperative effort by more than dozen voting rights groups.
All three cities were high on the list of expected hot spots where problems were feared.

The coalition, which by 9:30 a.m. EST had received nearly 11,000 reports of problems, has also fielded complaints about polling places not opening on time in Virginia, where long lines have been predicted for weeks.

The most reports came from New York state.In Richmond and Fairfax, Va., CNN reported that polling places had to switch to paper ballots because of machine malfunctions.

And in Florida, there were reports that ballots were missing from polls in Tallahassee.

It was unclear if the problems reported thus far were isolated or indications of broader breakdowns. But voting rights groups were already sounding the alarm.

"What we are seeing this morning is exactly what we have been predicting for months," said Jonah Goldman, director of the National Campaign for Fair Elections. "Because of this breakdown in resources, people are being turned away and will be standing in line for hours."

Many election watchers had hoped that massive early voting nationwide would take some of the pressure off polling today. By some estimates, as many as 30% of the ballots cast in this year's presidential election were cast before today.

Early voting before election day in West Virginia and North Carolina revealed problems with electronic voting machines that were flipping their votes inexplicably. Election officials said the problems resulted from machines that were improperly calibrated.

But several battleground states expected to be crucial to today's results -- including Virginia and Pennsylvania -- had limited early voting, making it harder for local election officials to correct problems before today.

Potentially further complicating the day's voting will be confusion over new registration lists that some states are using for the first time.

Voting rights groups are expecting even more problems as polling begins in the Rocky Mountain states and on the West Coast.

In Denver, which experienced long lines in the 2006 midterm elections, voters will cast their ballots on paper ballots for the first time in decades, setting the stage for more confusion there.