Rodrigues said 70 percent to 80 percent of the state’s 5 million registered voters cast ballots.

Of 2,349 precincts statewide, three opened late; and elections officials dealt with several isolated complaints at polling places.

Voters and elections officials reported paper jams on optical scanning machines, apparently caused by wet ballots handled by voters who had stood in the rain. About 25 percent of Virginia’s voting machines are optical scanners.

The ballots were set aside to dry and be counted after the polls closed at 7 p.m., Rodrigues said.

At one precinct in Richmond’s north end, hundreds of people encircled a branch library by 6 a.m., the scheduled opening of the polls. But the line grew for another 25 minutes before the poll workers opened the doors. They said the librarian who had a key to the polling place had overslept.

Despite the delay under a steady drizzle, voters cheered as the doors opened at 6:25 a.m.

In Chesapeake, approximately 1,000 voters stood in line to vote, and some people reported malfunctioning machines. Voters lined up for a half mile in Petersburg.

After polls closed at 7 p.m., election officials said lines were the biggest issue.

“We’re sorry that Virginians had to wait longer than they would’ve liked, certainly, but the reality is, every single vote will be cast and counted,” Rodrigues said.

Between 200 and 300 people were waiting to vote when the polls closed at a Blacksburg church where Virginia Tech students were registered to vote, said the Rev. John Wertz, pastor of St. Michael’s Lutheran Church.

Wertz said people waiting to vote were in a serpentine line up and down the pews of the sanctuary so that all them can be inside and out of the cold.

Outside it was a festive atmosphere, as students affiliated with the young voter registration group Rock the Vote serenaded voters as they left the church.

At George Mason University in Fairfax, Provost Peter N. Stevens wrote in a campus e-mail that a hacker had entered a message into the university system stating the Election Day had been rescheduled.

“I am sure everybody realizes this is a hoax, it is also a serious offense and we are looking into it,” he wrote in the e-mail.

Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama have keyed on Virginia’s 13 electoral votes, and polls have given Obama a slight lead. A Democratic presidential candidate has not won Virginia since 1964.

Election officials were looking into reported incidents of “voter suppression” that included a uniformed sheriff whose presence intimidated some voters; overzealous campaign workers who quizzed voters on their choices; and a recording of conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh played within earshot of a polling place.

No voters were deterred from casting their ballots, Rodrigues said.

Officials also said they were investigating incidents where voters who thought they registered through third-party groups were not in fact registered to vote.

Rodrigues said incidents at polling places tend to get magnified during a presidential election, and more so this year.

“Voting equipment or voter failure in elections, it happens,” Rodrigues said, stressing she was not minimizing the reported problems.

Enthusiasm was apparent at polling places, where voters huddled under umbrellas an hour or more before polls opened.

Jennifer Howard, 51, arrived at Herndon High School at 5:05 a.m. She was fifth in line.

“I knew the lines were going to be really long, and I’m a nurse and I had to be at work on time,” she said.

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Associated Press writers Joseph White in Herndon, Sue Lindsey in Blacksburg and Michael Felberbaum contributed to this report.