Over 120 million Americans turned out yesterday to vote for the President of the United States of America in what many believed to be the most important election of their lifetime. It was the highest voter turnout since 1968.
President George W. Bush took a noticeable lead as the first of the projected votes started coming in shortly after 8 pm, mainly from Southern states like Georgia, Kentucky, and Tennessee, which typically vote Republican. As the votes continued to roll in, the gap between Senator John Kerry, Democratic candidate for President, and Bush narrowed, Kerry having a projected 188 electoral votes and Bush having 198 around midnight.
By 1 am, the projected electoral votes had risen for Bush and Kerry to 269 and 207, respectively, with Bush at 51percent and Kerry at 48 percent of the total votes. These projected values dropped to 249 and 211 when Ohio was retracted as a “Bush-won” state. The electoral vote count nearly evened once Kerry took Michigan and Minnesota, bringing his total to 242 as Bush remained at 249.
Ohio, with 20 electoral votes, and Iowa, with seven electoral votes, are two of the remaining undecided states. While some of the major broadcast networks projected Bush as the winner, others ruled it too close to call.
Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, the Democratic vice-presidential candidate, told supporters in Boston, “We’ve waited four years for this victory, we can wait one more night.”
The Bush campaign stated they believed they would carry Ohio. Only New Mexico, Wisconsin, Nevada, Iowa, and Ohio remain to be called for either candidate. Ohio will determine the election, as it’s worth a hefty twenty electoral votes.
Absentee ballots have yet to be counted in many states, some of which are key to determining the winner. Ohio and Florida are among the battleground states that could alter the current electoral vote projections.
The Senate elections that formed the 109th Congress were just as tight as the presidential election with Democrats attempting to claim two more seats on top of the ones they expected to hold, which would put them in power of the Senate. Republicans, however, managed to maintain control of the Senate, picking up a seat in Georgia, where Republican Representative Johnny Isakson defeated Democratic Representative Denise Majette, while losing one in Illinois, where Democrat Barack Obama defeated Republican Alan Keyes. Both of these seats were being vacated by retiring Senators and were up for grabs.
But the focus of the Senate elections was found in South Dakota, where Democratic Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle fought an extremely close battle with Republican Representative John Thume to retain his seat. They were in a dead heat when the first results came in with a difference of less than thirty votes. The gap didn’t widen much as more votes were tallied, but in the end, Thume ousted Daschle from his seat with 51% of the votes, as compared to Daschle’s 49%.
The Democrats won Senate seats in Vermont, Maryland, and Connecticut, while Republicans won seats in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and New Hampshire.
