NEW YORK, April 19 (Xinhua) -- New Yorkers lined up to vote on Tuesday in crucial presiential primaries in a state where both Democratic hopefuls, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, and Republican front-runner Donald Trump have roots.
Across the state, voting began at 6 a.m. local time in Tuesday's Democratic and Republican presidential contests, which are widely deemed as the most contentious fight for the candidates of both parties.
At a poll site located in the Brooklyn Museum in New York City's Borough of Brooklyn, the most populated area in the state, voters lined up to cast their ballot well before office hours started.
Democratic front-runner Clinton, who served as the state's senator for eight years, and Trump, the Republican front-runner who was born and raised in New York, are still leading in polls and are favored to win the state both of them call home.
Both candidates suffered a string of losses in recent state contests and saw their rivals eating away their delegates advances.
New York, a conventional blue state, has 291 Democratic delegates and 95 Republican delegates up for grabs, which means whoever wins Tuesday's primary and by how much margin will definitely alter the trajectory of the nomination process of both parties.
On the GOP side, Trump currently holds a 197-delegate lead over his nearest rival, Senator Ted Cruz from Texas.
If he wins 85 delegates out of New York -- which is quite feasible for the state's winner-take-all rules and his 30-plus percent lead in recent polls -- it will eliminate Cruz's chance for the Republican nomination.
On the Democratic side, if Clinton's rival Sanders -- a native from Brooklyn who enjoyed huge wins in recent primaries and caucuses in Washington, Alaska and Hawaii -- can pull out a victory, it would effectively become the biggest upset in the Democratic nomination race this election cycle.
And in that scenario, it would provide a clear path for the long-time underdog senator from the northeastern U.S. state of Vermont to win the nomination.
The heated nomination battle, however, seems to have little influence on the atmosphere at the poll sites.
At the Brooklyn Museum poll site, voters waited leisurely for their turns to check in with the polling staff, receiving their ballot, filling them up and feeding them to the scanning machines. The whole process went on in an orderly way.
"We live right across the street, and it's very easy to come and vote," said Timothy Cole, a voter from Brooklyn.
"It's a very easy process, and it doesn't take long at all," said Bernadette Gerard, voting coordinator at the Brooklyn Museum poll site. "The traffic is heavy and we expect higher turnouts throughout the New York State, especially the City."
Tuesday's polls will close at 9 p.m. and results will be announced after that.
