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Henrie's Recipes
US presidency caught in new stalemate
Olivier Knox
Posted Wed, 03 Nov 2004
President George W. Bush's campaign on Wednesday claimed a decisive victory in the race for the White House but Democratic challenger John Kerry refused to concede leaving the US election snared in an embarrassing stalemate for the second time in four years.
After a marathon campaign dominated by the war on terror and the invasion of Iraq, Republicans and Democrats battled over the result in the crucial state of Ohio and no official winner was immediately declared.
"We are convinced that President Bush has won re-election with at least 286 Electoral College votes," Andrew Card, the White House chief of staff told a Republican campaign victory rally in Washington.
The aide called it a "decisive margin" of victory, more than 3.5 million votes ahead of Kerry.
”More votes than any presidential candidate
"In this election, President Bush received more votes than any presidential candidate in our country's history."
Card said Bush had a lead of 140 000 votes in Ohio which was "statistically insurmountable". Other sources gave a different tally.
Bush went to sleep shortly after 5am (1100 GMT), according to his official spokesperson. But in a nerve-wracking reminder of the contest for Florida in 2000 that was finally decided by the US Supreme Court, he was not 100 percent sure of victory.
The final result from the mid-western state could take days to finalise.
Fox News and NBC gave Bush the state and almost certain triumphant re-election. But CNN said it was too close to call and other networks made no judgment.
Kerry's running-mate John Edwards vowed: "We will fight for every vote."
Kerry campaign manager Mary Beth Cahill said more than 250 000 votes remained to be counted in Ohio. "We believe when they are, John Kerry will win Ohio."
Bush campaign communications director Nicolle Devenish called the refusal to concede "delusional".
Archaic US system
But for the second straight time, a US presidential election foundered on the archaic US system based on 538 electoral votes that are awarded in separate state contests.
The candidates and officials of both parties had been hoping to avoid a replay of the 2000 debacle when Bush won only after a 36-day legal battle over the recount. In the end Bush won the state by 537 votes.
Network projections early Wednesday gave the Republican 28 states with 254 electoral votes, short of the 270 needed to win. Kerry had 18 states and the federal capital, Washington DC, for 242 electoral votes.
The president led Kerry nationwide by 3.5 million votes, a sweet reversal of four years ago when he lost the popular tally to Gore by more than half a million votes.
Ohio's 20 electors would have brought Bush to the brink of victory. Without them he would need to snatch the mid-western states of Wisconsin (10 electors) and Iowa (seven) from the Democrats. Both were too close to call.
The Democrats said as many as 250 000 provisional ballots, which are subject to verification of the voter's eligibility, could hold the balance in Ohio, where Bush led by more than 130 000 votes, according to the state's unofficial toll.
Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell told CNN that counties were still tabulating the number of provisional ballots, which are cast by questionable voters but held aside for later determination of validity.
Blackwell said Ohio officials would spend 10 days determining whether the ballots were valid and awaiting absentee ballots mailed by November 2. Those would be counted from day 11.
But it was not clear whether the Democrats would give in. While pledging to make sure all votes were counted, Edwards only spoke of carrying on the battle for at least "one more night."
Lawyers ready
Thousands of lawyers from both parties were ready to challenge close results after the longest and costliest campaign in US history, and the first presidential election since the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Bush earlier appeared headed for a big night, on course to win the presidency, a majority of the popular vote for the first time and tighter Republican control of both houses of Congress.
Early exit polls showing a Kerry surge produced euphoria in the Democratic camp but the mood shifted visibly as the first returns came in and then more dramatically as television networks gave Florida to Bush and then apparently Ohio.
Up to 120 million people cast ballots in the election, which matched state for state the 2000 contest between Bush and Democrat Gore, except for the Republican loss of New Hampshire and its four electors.
Turnout could approach a four-decade high with long lines of voters reported across the country. Some queued for hours to cast ballots.
So intense was interest that some Ohio polling centres stayed open after their scheduled close to accommodate the huge throngs.
The candidates left their political fate in the voters' hands after eight months and a billion dollars of campaigning. Both men broke tradition to stump on Election Day.
Confident candidates
Both Bush and Kerry had expressed confidence after casting ballots.
"I know I've given it my all," Bush said as he voted in the fire station in his hometown of Crawford, Texas, accompanied by his wife Laura and twin daughters.
"The issue is, who do you trust? Who do you trust to secure this country? ... People know where I stand."
Bush and Kerry stressed the need for an early, definitive result to avoid any repetition of the 2000 election debacle.
"I think it's very important for it to end tonight," Bush said. "The world watches our great democracy function and (there would) be nothing better for our system for the election to be conclusively over tonight."
"I hope there aren't challenges. I hope America will vote according to the law today," Kerry said after voting in Boston with his two daughters, Alexandra and Vanessa.
Some claims of irregularities surfaced in Florida with several voters complaining they had received phone calls or flyers sending them to the wrong polling precincts.
Like Bush, Kerry broke with tradition to hold an early Election Day campaign event in Wisconsin.
"We're going to link hands and hearts and we're going to take America to a better place," Kerry told 250 supporters in the town of La Crosse. "Let's get the job done."
US voters also decided the composition of Congress, where Republicans increased their majority in the 100-member Senate and 435-seat House of Representatives.
Voters cast ballots in the first election in 30 years to be held with US troops fighting abroad, giving their verdict after a heated debate over the 2003 invasion of Iraq and a question of who could keep America safer from terrorists.
One of the nastiest campaigns
The campaign, one of the nastiest in modern US history on the stump and over the media airwaves, pitted candidates with sharply contrasting styles, temperaments and political philosophies.
Bush, 58, the born-again Christian son of ex-president George H.W. Bush, campaigned as a "war president" ready to take the United States into battle alone if necessary to safeguard the country.
The 60-year-old Kerry, a decorated Vietnam war veteran, took a more nuanced stand, preaching the need to repair alliances rent by the Iraq war and reconstruct an international consensus on the global war against terrorism.
Bush called Iraq the central front in the anti-terror war; Kerry branded it a dangerous diversion. The president saw democracy on the march; his opponent saw Iraq descending into chaos.
With the US job market still fragile and Bush's economic policies under attack, security was Bush's strong suit as he relentlessly derided Kerry as weak and waffling on defence.
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