Razor-thin margins in four critical states, including Wisconsin, will determine the outcome of the 2004 presidential election in a nightmarish repeat of the 2000 gridlock.
Though President Bush led the popular vote by a commanding 3.7 million as of press time, a number of states' electoral votes, including those of Iowa, Ohio, New Mexico and Wisconsin, remained in contention.
Democrats vowed to fight for every vote in the hotly contested states. At 1:28 a.m. Wednesday, vice presidential candidate John Edwards addressed an anxious crowd in Boston.
\We've waited four years for this victory. We can wait one more night,"" he said.
Early returns did not differ from pre-election predictions until swing state results were announced through the media. Ohio and its 20 electoral votes emerged as the linchpin in this year's election; its critical outcome remained too close to call as of press time.
President Bush claimed an early lead over Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, capturing the electoral votes of all southern states, including Florida's 27. Kerry closed the electoral vote gap, securing all of the Northeastern states, except for one of Maine's four electoral votes.
Bush, as expected, won all states west of the Mississippi River, with the exception of Minnesota and the West Coast. Kerry easily won California's 55 electoral votes, as well as Oregon, Washington and Hawaii.
This left Bush with 254 electoral votes, while Kerry held 242. Forty-two are still disputed, nearly half of which belong to Ohio. Either candidate must secure 270 votes total in order to win the Electoral College.
""There's really no way for Kerry to put together a win at this point without Ohio,"" said Virginia Sapiro, a UW-Madison political science professor. ""Wherever Ohio goes, that person wins.""
Since Bush won Ohio by a slim margin of 3.5 percent of the vote in 2000, both campaigns stumped heavily in the state, according to Ohio State University political science Professor Herbert Weisberg. In 2000, then-Vice President Al Gore had stopped campaigning in the state months early, while Bush maintained his presence. Had Gore continued campaigning, Weisberg said he believed Gore would have captured the state, its electoral votes and the presidency.
The importance of Ohio also rests in its political and ideological diversity, according to UW-Madison political science Professor Charles Jones. Ohio has a stark demographic split; the southern portion of the state considered closer in politics to a southern state with a heavy Republican voting base. The northern, industrialized portion of the state tends to lean heavily Democratic, setting the stage for a neck-and-neck race, he said. Ohio has also lost nearly 200,000 jobs under the Bush administration.
Other states, including Wisconsin, did not receive as much attention election night.
As of press time, Kerry held a 13,000-vote lead in Wisconsin, claiming 49.8 percent of the vote. Bush followed closely behind with 49.3 percent.
A canvass of the unofficial results from 15 area UW polling precincts reveals campus voters favored Kerry by nearly 13,000 votes.
Both candidates visited the state more than 20 times, and according to Republican Party of Wisconsin spokesperson Chris Lato, Bush's visits were successful.
""In the areas of the state that we needed to be strong, we were strong-stronger than we were in 2000 and that was important,"" he said.
Kerry's Wisconsin campaign coordinator George Twigg was also hopeful about his candidate's chances in the state, saying voter turnout exceeded expectations.
Neither campaign made any blunders that significantly affected the outcome of the election, Sapiro said.
""I don't think Democrats can really blame anybody other than maybe John Kerry for not being as strong a candidate as they like,"" said Bruce Cain, a University of California-Berkley political science professor.
""John Kerry and I made a promise to the American people that in this election, every vote would count and every vote would be counted,"" Edwards said Wednesday morning. ""We will fight for every vote. You deserve no less.""
According to Cain, there is a distinct possibility the Kerry campaign will legally challenge the outcome of the election. As of press time, Bush led by 140,000 votes in Ohio, and Cain said Kerry and Edwards are ""hedging their bets"" on irregularities and uncounted votes.
Between 120,000 and 250,000 provisional and military ballots have yet to be counted, according to CNN. With Bush's current lead, Cain said Kerry would have to secure 400,000 to 500,000 ballots to retake the lead.
""Are there enough [provisional ballots], and what will they have to break at, in order to make a difference?"" he said.
Both campaigns have lawyers secured in all swing states, and Cain said they are prepared for a potential Kerry challenge.
""They're prepared, but again I don't think they're going to unleash lawyers if there's no hope of winning,"" he said. ""So it really depends on if there's any chance that it could make a difference in the outcome.""
