Final election push

2004-11-01 16:02

Wilmington - George W Bush and John Kerry closed out their presidential campaigns on Monday with a multi-state blitz seeking decisive votes in an election which, just hours before polling booths open, was locked in a dead heat.

The Republican president and his Democratic rival, both nursing their voices, kept up punishing schedules until the last minute, pitching their messages to undecided voters in the battleground states that are expected to swing Tuesday's ballot.

Bush, 58, kicked off the day in Ohio as part of a barnstorming final campaign drive that will whisk him through six states, ending late in the evening in Texas, where he will rest up at his Crawford ranch before election day.

"If you believe that America should fight the war on terror with all our might and lead with unwavering confidence in our ideals, I ask you to come stand with me," he told supporters crowded into a freezing airport hangar.

After a morning rally in Florida, Kerry, 60, was set to charge through three other battleground states in the Midwest.

The latest polls showed the race balanced on a razor's edge, with five calling a dead heat and four others giving the president a statistically insignificant lead of one to three points.

The percentage of undecided voters varied from two to eight points.

Lawyers

With thousands of lawyers from both camps poised to pounce at any hint of the voting irregularities that tainted the 2000 election, both candidates said it was vital that the outcome of the election be known by Tuesday night.

"I really think it's important not to have a world of lawsuits that will stop the will of the people from going forward," Bush said in an interview with NBC.

Kerry said he was confident the election would not be decided in the courts, but added that his legal teams would be scrutinising the polling process.

"We're not trying to stop anybody from voting. We want to make sure people vote," he told NBC.

Florida

The victor requires a majority of the 538 electoral college votes that decide the presidency and are awarded in separate, mostly winner-take-all races.

The verdict appeared to hinge on the results in Florida and a handful of northern states such as Pennsylvania and Ohio.

Analysts have not ruled out a candidate winning the popular vote and losing the election - as Democrat Al Gore did in 2000 - or a 269-269 tie in the electoral vote that could force congress to decide the outcome.

Bush appeared to have 25 states with a total of 213 electors nailed down, while Kerry had 14 states and the federal district of Washington, DC for 190 electors.

This left 11 states with 135 electors up for grabs.

Voter turnout on Tuesday could be the key factor, with signs that it may be significantly higher than the 106 million who voted in 2000.

- AFP