U.S. presidential candidates stood outside polling stations and greeted voters in person throughout New Hampshire as the state is holding its 2008 presidential primary on Tuesday.
Democratic candidate Barack Obama, who won the first round of voting at midnight in a far northern town, appeared at a morning rally in Hanover, encouraging his campaign volunteers to persuade, till the last minute, the undecided voters to cast ballots for him.
"If there is anybody left out there who is still not sure whether they will vote, or is still not clear who they will vote for, that a light will shine through that window, a beam of light will come down upon you," said the former Illinois Senator.
New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Democrat, and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, Republican, who both failed in leading the Iowa caucuses in their own party, was seen shaking hands and taking photos with voters outside the polling stations before they cast ballots.
During two and half hours in the morning, Rudy Giuliani swept three polling stations in Manchester city, trying to boost support in view of his declining position in the local polls.
When visiting a station, the former New York mayor ran into one of his rivals, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, who was taking pictures with his voters.
"Are you coming to vote for me?" Huckabee joked, although he knew they came for the same reason.
The Iowa Republican caucuses winner has dropped to the fourth place in the New Hampshire primary due to less support of evangelists in the state, among others.
"They want government to leave them alone, let them live their lives. They want government to do the job that it's supposed to do, and that's protecting us ... let us live our lives," he told voters outside a polling station.
Meanwhile, Democratic candidate John Edwards, who has been sandwiched by Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Iowa caucuses, is struggling to retain his second place by criticizing the former First Lady for having taken money from big corporations.
"I've never taken any money from a Washington lobbyist or a special interest body, but she's continued to do that," he said in Manchester on Tuesday.
The New Hampshire presidential primary, the first of its kind in the country, traditionally, could have huge implications in the process of nominating parties' candidates.
The last local poll before the voting day showed Obama's continuing lead over Clinton and Edwards and John McCain's predominance in the Republican camp.
Source:Xinhua
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