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Wednesday, November 03, 2004
Tight race attracts ‘record US turnout’
DALLAS - Americans stood in long lines Tuesday to vote in the first presidential election since the United States plunged into its war on terrorism, with President George W. Bush and Sen. John Kerry in a race too close to call.
Bush, voting in Texas, said, “I’ve given it my all.” Kerry, still campaigning in Wisconsin, promised to take the nation “to a better place.”
Officials predicted record turnout, while poll workers braced for adjustments to new voting machines and new rules.
Heavy crowds were reported at polling places in the east, the first precincts to open. Long lines snaked out the doors as voters waited, some in the rain, and brought chairs for expected long waits.
“My hope of course is that this election ends tonight,” Bush told reporters, referring to the expected legal challenges in some districts. He won the presidency in 2000 only after a Supreme Court decision gave him Florida and the electoral college majority.
Legal eagles
The prospect of unprecedented legal challenges hung over election day, with each side sending thousands of lawyers into motion to monitor the flood of newly registered voters and mount hair-trigger challenges against any sign of irregularity.
In an 11th-hour blow for Democrats in battleground Ohio, an appeals court in Cincinnati stayed lower court decisions and cleared the way for vote challengers to be present at polling places in the state.
Democrats had claimed Republicans were seeking to discourage minority voters by keeping party representatives out of polling stations.
The decisions were quickly appealed to the Supreme Court, where Justice John Paul Stevens declined to overturn the appeals court action in an order issued little more than hour before the polls there opened.
“This election is in the hands of the people, and I feel very comfortable about that,” Bush said after voting near his ranch in Crawford, Texas, along with First Lady Laura Bush and twin daughters Barbara and Jenna.
Kerry, who was to vote later in Boston, handed out information packets in the morning to volunteers in La Crosse, Wisconsin, exhorting his supporters to “get the job done.”
“We’re going to take America to a better place,” the Massachusetts senator promised.
Tied: CNN
The final pre-election polls turned up tied 49-49 in one CNN-USA Today-Gallup survey, with Ralph Nader at one percent.
Nearly one in three voters, including about half of those in Florida, were expected to cast ballots using ATM-style voting machines that computer scientists have criticized for their potential for software glitches, hacking and malfunctioning.
Other major concerns were over provisional ballots, new this presidential election and a potential source of delayed counts, and whether poll workers were adequate and sufficiently trained.
Most of the ATM-style machines, including all of Florida’s, lack paper records that could be used to verify the electronic results in a recount.
Florida requires state election administrators to count—and, if necessary, recount—an election within 11 days. But lawsuits could drag out the results for weeks, even forcing the courts to decide the outcome.
Four years ago, the Supreme Court intervened in a recount after 36 days, handing Bush a 537-vote victory in Florida and with it the presidency.
Last-ditch
A dizzying final dash across the Midwest and points south capped a campaign that found Bush and Kerry deadlocked at every vital turn.
Tight surveys in Florida and a variety of Midwestern states, including Ohio, deepened the mystery over who would collect the necessary 270 electoral votes.
Both candidates cast their candidacies as vital to the country’s welfare. Bush declared the “safety and prosperity of America” was at stake, and Kerry said “the hopes of our country are on the line.”
Overnight, the Bush campaign sent an e-mail from the president exhorting people to vote—”It comes down to today”—and asking that the recipient forward the e-mail to five more people. Kerry e-mailed a similar call to arms: “When you go to the polls bring your friends, your family, your neighbors. No one can afford to stand on the sidelines or sit this one out.”
The nation’s first votes cast and counted on Election Day, in the mountain hamlet of Hart’s Location, New Hampshire, reflected in miniature the close race.
Following a quirky tradition of post-midnight voting in New Hampshire’s North Country, 16 people voted for Bush, 14 for Kerry and one for Ralph Nader. Bush beat Democrat Al Gore 17-13 in the hamlet in 2000. (AP)
(November 3, 2004 issue)
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