CLEVELAND – The precinct-by-precinct battle that was expected to deadlock Ohio polling places yesterday evaporated after Republicans abandoned plans to challenge the qualifications of voters across the state.

Rulings early yesterday from the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals and from Justice Stewart of the Supreme Court cleared the way for the GOP to place several thousand challengers at election sites, but the governor of Ohio, Robert Taft, announced early yesterday that the party’s poll-watchers would act only as observers.

“The challengers, at least the Republican challengers, will only be witnessing,” Mr. Taft told CNN. “They will not be directly asking the election officials to challenge voters. But they will be witnessing the process, and then reporting any concerns thereafter to elections officials.”

Republicans said they enlisted more than 3,000 “ballot security” volunteers because of concerns about possible election fraud. Democrats alleged that the GOP was focusing its poll-watching efforts on districts that are home to large numbers of blacks.

However, at urban precincts around the state, the GOP’s monitors never arrived yesterday.

“The Republican challenger never showed up,” said a supervisor at a polling place in Cleveland Heights, Clark Henry.

A steady rain fell across much of the state yesterday. Long lines, some of which stretched outdoors, were the chief complaint from voters. Democrats won a ruling from a federal judge allowing those stuck in especially long queues to vote on paper ballots. There were also some disputes over who would be permitted to cast provisional ballots.

Mr. Henry said the most serious problems at his polling place in a high school gymnasium were due to a large volume of voters who arrived just after the polls opened at 6:30 a.m.

“It was frantic,” he said, adding that some voters spent up to two hours in line.

Mr. Henry said most of the problems encountered were due to “the competence of poll-workers.”

Democrats were clearly taking no chances that they might be outmaneuvered by the Republicans.

In Cleveland’s Fairfax neighborhood, five volunteers looked on as a stream of black voters entered a polling place at an apartment complex. Some of the monitors wore rain slickers that said “Election Protection.” Others had jackets marked “Voting Rights Team.”

Some voters said they were bracing to be challenged. “I was surprised. I thought I was going to have to show ID, et cetera, but they just asked my name and address,” Wyleane Darden, 44, said.

About 70% of Ohio voters used punch-card machines, the same technology that caused widespread confusion in Florida four years ago.

“I did check my chads, made sure there’s no chads on the back,” said Ms. Darden. She brought her son Anthony, 23, to the polls to vote for the first time. Both said they voted for Senator Kerry.

“We’ve got a saying, ‘The lesser of two evils,’ ” Ms. Darden said. She said the war in Iraq was the main reason behind her vote. “I don’t see the justification for that war,” she said.

A young man emerging from the same polling place agreed to talk with a reporter, but insisted on crossing the street to avoid being overheard by others in the area.

“I voted Bush,” the man said in a soft voice. “It wasn’t really a vote for Bush, but a vote against some of the moral things Kerry appears to believe in: abortion, homosexual marriage, stem cell research.

“As a Christian myself, I’m faced with a dilemma,” said the man, who would not give his name. “Do we vote for who we feel will support our moral standards as Christians or do we vote for those we have traditionally supported, the Democratic Party?”

“The Republican Party probably has more African-American support than people realize,” he added.

In a Cleveland suburb, Shaker Heights, voters reported few problems. No voting monitors were in evidence, but several doctors in white lab coats were campaigning for judicial candidates who support tort reform.

“You’re the only one who’s challenged us,” said Philip Laren, who voted at a school along with his wife, Lauren.

While polls suggest that President Bush fares better with men and Mr. Kerry gets more support from women, the Larens bucked that trend. While Mr. Laren said he voted for the senator, his wife stuck with the president.

“John Kerry is not my kind of guy,” she said. Mrs. Laren said she backs Mr. Bush’s policy of fighting the terrorists far from American soil. “I think we have to deal with them over there before them come over here.

Another unenthusiastic voter went for Mr. Kerry. “I don’t like either one, but I like Bush less. He’s just stubborn,” said a muscle therapist, Aileen Apple. She said Iraq “just doesn’t seem to be getting any better.”