Voting

Linda Ivell is an ardent supporter of President Bush, leads the state Republican women's club and has met all of the major GOP presidential candidates. Yet the effervescent 53-year-old real estate agent, who lives in this former citrus and phosphate mining hub in central Florida, simply can't make up her mind about whom to vote for Tuesday in Florida's crucial presidential primary.

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.

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.

Amanda Lynn, a salesclerk at the Far West Fungi mushroom shop, likes Sen. Barack Obama, but worries that the country isn't ready for an African American president. Investment banker Nicole Smith likes the idea of a female commander-in-chief but worries that Sen. Hillary Clinton's personal style may be too harsh. Andrew Cross, a biochemistry major at San Francisco State, likes both Democratic contenders but is waiting to talk to his politically savvy grandmother to hear her recommendation.

Matt Murphy knows it is hard to be a Republican at any college, much less UCLA. "I can't walk down the quad without someone trying to talk to me about Obama or give me a flier. . . . They want me to drink the Democratic Kool-Aid," said the 19-year-old freshman who probably will vote for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. In any other election, Murphy's claim could be dismissed as a youthful exaggeration or an interesting, but ultimately insignificant, factoid.

A proposed Thousand Oaks traffic initiative aimed at thwarting plans for a second Home Depot and other development could cost the city millions of dollars annually in lost revenue if approved by voters in June, according to an independent analyst's report. The city could lose at least $3 million a year, while Ventura County and the school, fire and parks districts could forfeit $6 million more in annual taxes, the 97-page report by Sacramento-based Economic & Planning Systems found.

Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama dueled to a Super Tuesday draw, capturing states big and small and padding their delegate counts in a Democratic contest that remains highly competitive after the biggest day of balloting in presidential primary history. Obama won 12 of 22 states -- but not California, the day's most coveted prize. Clinton's victory there was powered by overwhelming support from Latinos, who made up nearly 30% of California voters.

The hottest political souvenir in the childhood hometown of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is a small green "Rodham Corner" sign hanging at Wisner and Elm streets, just a few doors from the two-story brick house where she spent her youth. The sign has been stolen so many times that last year city workers bolted it 30 feet up a wooden light pole, said Mayor Howard P. Frimark. "It's been nonstop political talk here ever since Hillary announced her candidacy," Frimark said Tuesday afternoon.

Myanmar's military regime announced Saturday that it would ask voters to approve a new constitution in May to make way for democratic elections in 2010, a move that drew the scorn of a skeptical opposition.