After three hours, the barrage subsided, and voting picked up as the country's politicians implored Iraqis to cast their ballots.
Then, most of the polls published just before the voting picked the winners in the primaries, but they missed the margin of victory by a mile.
Sweltering heat kept most voters away from polling stations -- about 40,000 of them across the relatively stable kingdom in the northwestern corner of Africa -- early in the day, though voting picked up later.
(After music is submitted academy members vote to determine the nominations; a second round of votes picks a winner).
On the morning of the vote, pick-up trucks mounted with megaphones fanned out to deliver a coup de grace.
If the popular vote picked the president, the Bush camp would be demanding recounts everywhere.
But what was more important is simply that a higher share of the minorities who did turn out to vote picked Mr. Obama as their candidate.
But the ballots will be coded so that only Republican votes count toward selecting Republican delegates and only Democratic votes pick Democratic delegates.
Support for a no vote picked up 2%, increasing to 45% in the July survey, which was carried out for the Scotland on Sunday.
Something less violent is happening in Broward County, where every one of the additional votes picked up by Mr Gore (and approved unanimously by the Democratic canvassing board) has been challenged by Republican observers.
