In a hotel corridor in west Los Angeles three teenage girls were singing a song in Farsi while at least 100 people stood in line nearby.

It was a patriotic song that many recognised.

This was one of three impromptu polling stations in hotels in Southern California where Iranians living in the US could vote in their country's presidential election.

And vote they did.

The last set of official figures suggested that at least 400,000 Iranians live in the US.

Many have been here for decades. Some are supporters of the Shah, Iran's monarch, replaced by Islamic revolutionaries in 1979.

Parts of west Los Angeles are nicknamed Tehrangeles - a mini-Tehran, dominated by Iranian shops and restaurants.

A few staged a protest against the election, saying voting gave tacit approval to what they call an illegal regime.

But the turnout at 41 polling stations across the US suggests the majority of American Iranians are keenly involved.