Sixtytwo-Year-Old retired school teacher John McLaughlin had an early breakfast on Tuesday morning to reach the Travis High School at Oltorf in Austin. It was a “big day” for him as also for many others in the states of Texas, Ohio, Rhode Island and Vermont who were to play a decisive role in what is considered as a do-or-die battle for Hillary Clinton in her bid for Democratic Presidential nomination.

While election officials at the Democratic Party’s desk at the polling booth in the High School were busy attending to a queue of old men, women and youngsters, those at the Republican Desk were chatting it out in the absence of any queue. “I have had enough of (George) Bush. It’s time for change,” said McLaughlin, a Democrat, after exercising his choice on the electronic voting machine. “And I mean real change,” he told The Indian Express clarifying that he did not mean Clinton who had “nothing new” to offer.

Standing outside the school building, Robin Schneider was distributing Obama’s pamphlets to visitors. She had already cast her vote in early polling. “You won’t believe how many women are stopping by to have a word with me. And people think they are all for Hillary,” she said. In contrast, there was nobody to woo the voters outside the polling booth on behalf of any other Presidential contenders.

The latest polls, however, suggested that poll outcome in the four states could be much closer than what looked like at Travis High School polling booth. Poll surveys a day before voting showed Clinton with a solid lead in Ohio; in Texas two poll surveys showed Obama with a slight lead, while a third put New York Senator ahead.

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