Primary Elections

Riverside County was in the vanguard of a new electronics era in 2000, when it became the first county in the nation to convert to computerized voting machines. With the new technology, voters were able to cast their ballots up to 10 days early and miles outside their own precincts at shopping malls. An RV outfitted as an electronic polling station was sent to senior centers, Indian reservations and places deep in the desert.

The quarreling between Mitt Romney and John McCain in the closing days of the Florida primary highlights their clash over whether Republicans should make the economy or national security their top priority in choosing a presidential nominee. The two are battling for the lead in Tuesday's pivotal contest in Florida, the most populous state yet to cast ballots in the Republican race.

At Adams Pawn, a middle-aged man in a tracksuit haggles with the shop's proprietor over a Winchester rifle. Shop owner Charles Harding shakes so violently from Parkinson's disease that he clutches the counter for support. But he gives the customer his best sales pitch. A $250 transaction like this could be the difference between a good day and a bad.

Barack Obama gained a burst of momentum from his landslide victory in the South Carolina primary on Saturday and an expected endorsement today from Democratic Sen. Edward M. Kennedy. But now, the Illinois senator faces a monumental contest that does not play to his strengths. In eight days, on Feb. 5, Obama and his principal rival, New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, face off in the contest dubbed Super Tuesday, the biggest day of presidential primary voting in U.S. history.

Presidential candidate John Edwards, who has yet to win any of the Democratic nominating contests, will stay in the race until the party convention, campaign advisors said Monday. After placing second in Iowa on Jan. 3, Edwards has run behind Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama in subsequent states and trails his two rivals in delegates to the convention.

A smiling Hillary Rodham Clinton waved from the front page of the Miami Herald on Monday after an evening of fundraising in Florida. The image of Barack Obama flickered on TV screens across the state, from the Panhandle to the high-rises lining South Florida's Biscayne Bay. But don't call it campaigning.

While his Republican rivals fought hard in the week before today's primary, Mike Huckabee was forced to largely forgo this expensive battlefield. After his loss to Sen. John McCain in the South Carolina GOP primary Jan. 19, Huckabee arrived in Florida short of cash and having little luck finding more. He decided to conserve money by traveling less and advertising only on cable TV, limiting his visibility in the state.

It was man-to-man political combat from the predawn hours Monday, but John McCain seemed to be relishing every minute. As the senator from Arizona took a seat among reporters on his "Straight Talk Express" bus in the late afternoon, he playfully clenched his fists in a fighter's stance. "What's the latest incoming? What dastardly deed did I perform most recently?" McCain asked.

As Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney has crisscrossed Florida trying to sway voters, he has promoted his business skills as vital to fixing the nation's economy. "We need to have a president who's actually had a job in the private sector to make sure the economy stays strong," he told hundreds of cheering supporters Monday in an airy airport hangar in this Panhandle beach community. "I'm that guy."

It was a rare flash of the pugnacious Rudolph W. Giuliani whom New Yorkers love or loathe: In Miami's Little Havana, he recalled barring Cuban President Fidel Castro from a 50th-anniversary banquet for the United Nations. Why? "To make clear what I think of him -- what people should think of him," the former New York mayor told a roomful of elderly Cuban immigrants.