President Bush and Sen. John F. Kerry were locked in a close race for the presidency tonight as polls closed in several states after a heavy Election Day turnout.
With long lines reported at polling places across the nation, many precincts decided to stay open late to accommodate voters waiting to cast their ballots.
After polls closed at 7 p.m. Eastern time in several Eastern and Midwestern states, Bush took an early lead, benefiting from strong support in solidly Republican states that he had been predicted to win comfortably, according to projections based on exit polls.
As the polls closed in Indiana, Kentucky and Georgia, television networks and the Associated Press projected that Bush would carry those states, and that Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat, would win Vermont. All those results were expected.
The final outcome seemed likely to depend on the results in a handful of swing states — including Florida and Ohio — that were up for grabs today and that appeared likely to tip the balance in the election. A candidate needs 270 of the nation’s 538 electoral votes to win the presidency.
As voters trooped to the polls, minor glitches were reported in the balloting in some places, but there were no widespread technical problems with voting machines. Nor were there any major confrontations over voters’ eligibility, with only limited legal challenges reported.
After a hard-fought campaign that focused on national security issues and the economy, the candidates put their fate in the hands of an electorate that some estimates said could exceed 120 million voters. That would be the most ever to vote in a U.S. election and a percentage turnout of eligible voters not seen since the 1960s.
In a measure of the tightness of the presidential race — tracking polls showed Bush and Kerry in a statistical dead heat as Election Day dawned — the two campaigns continued to stump in key battleground states even as voters cast their ballots.
Bush voted near his ranch in Crawford, Tex., this morning, and then made a final trip to Ohio, a state whose 20 electoral votes were considered vital to his chances of winning a second term.
“I know I’ve given it my all,” Bush told reporters after casting his ballot.
“I am confident we will carry Ohio,” he said later at his state campaign headquarters in Columbus, Ohio. “I am confident we will carry the nation.” During his visit, the president joined other Republican volunteers in working the phones, urging surprised voters to give him their Election Day support.
Kerry began his day in La Crosse, Wis., where he offered encouragement to supporters working to get out the vote in a state that has 10 electoral votes up for grabs. The senator then flew home to Boston, where he cast his ballot at the Massachusetts Statehouse before heading to the city’s Union Oyster House for his traditional Election Day lunch of chowder, clams and beer.
“America’s a strong country, and I think we can be stronger, but that’s up to the American people what road we go,” Kerry said after casting his ballot.
“We made the case for change,” he said earlier as he ended a nearly two-year campaign for the Democratic nomination and for the presidency in his bid to unseat Bush.
En route to Boston from Wisconsin, Kerry became teary-eyed as he distributed gifts to his staff during the flight.
Kerry’s running mate, Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, campaigned today in Florida, which offers 27 electoral votes and decided the outcome in the 2000 presidential election.
Vice President Cheney voted in his home state of Wyoming today, then flew to Wisconsin for a final campaign appearance before heading back to Washington, D.C.
According to exit polls conducted for the Associated Press by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International, voters appeared to be most concerned about terrorism, the economy and moral values. The candidate quality cited most often by voters as influencing their decision was ability to bring about needed change.
On a key exit poll question — whether the country was generally heading in the right direction or seriously off on the wrong track — most voters said the nation was on the wrong track, and those voters overwhelmingly backed Kerry, the AP reported.
The exit polls showed that roughly one in 10 voters were casting ballots for the first time and fewer than 10 percent were young voters. Kerry was favored by both groups.
In addition to the presidency, hundreds of other offices were at stake today, including 34 Senate seats, all 435 seats in the House of Representatives, 11 governorships and 5,800 seats in 44 state legislatures.
The turnout appeared to be the highest in U.S. history in number of voters, and the largest percentage of the electorate since 1968, when 61.9 percent of eligible voters cast their ballots at the height of the Vietnam War. The largest percentage turnout in recent decades was in 1960, when about 63 percent of voters participated in an election in which John F. Kerry narrowly defeated Richard Nixon.
Four years ago, about 105.4 million Americans voted, or about 51.2 percent of the electorate.
In that election, former Texas governor George W. Bush lost the popular vote to Vice President Al Gore but won the election when Florida, a swing state rich in electoral votes, narrowly put him over the top in the electoral college count.
2004 The Washington Post Company
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
