Americans Turn Out in Droves to Vote

[Emerald City]

By RON FOURNIER, AP Political Writer


WASHINGTON - President Bush and challenger John Kerry fought to the wire in their long, bitter race for the White House on Tuesday as Americans turned out in droves to choose between their embattled wartime president and a Democrat who vigorously questioned the invasion of Iraq.

"I've given it my all," the Republican said after voting at a Crawford, Texas, firehouse.

Kerry, a four-term Massachusetts senator, got teary-eyed as he thanked his staff for a campaign's worth of work. "We made the case for change," he said before voting at the Massachusetts Statehouse.

Alongside the first presidential election since the Sept. 11 attacks, control of Congress was at stake as Bush's fellow Republicans sought to extend their hold on the House and Senate. A full roster of propositions and local offices filled ballots nationwide.

Pre-election surveys indicated the presidential race could be as close as 2000, when Bush lost the popular vote to Democrat Al Gore but won the Electoral College count and the presidency after a ruling by the Supreme Court gave him Florida. The incumbent hoped to avoid the fate of his father — former President George H.W. Bush, who was bounced by voters in 1992 after waging war against Iraq and overseeing an ailing economy.

Officials predicted a turnout of 117.5 million to 121 million people, the most ever and rivaling the 1960 election in the percentage of eligible voters going to the polls. Voters welcomed an end to the longest, most expensive election on record.

"It's the only way to make the ads stop," Amanda Karel, 25, said as she waited to vote at a banquet hall in Columbus, Ohio.

Legions of lawyers and election-rights activists watched for signs of voter fraud or disenfranchisement. Complaints cropped up across the country, but voting seemed to be going smoothly overall.

Voters appeared to be most concerned about terrorism, the economy and moral values, according to exit polls conducted for The Associated Press by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International. The two candidate qualities that voters cited most often were strong leadership and bringing about needed change.With strategies molded by polls throughout the campaign, Kerry promised voters a new direction while Bush played up the risks of change.

Bush, 58, never more popular than the weeks after the terrorist strikes three years ago, constantly reminded voters of those days and cast himself as a strong, steady leader in an era of unease. He called Kerry indecisive and argued that Iraq was part of a global battle against terror.

"The people know where I stand," he said Tuesday. "The people know I know how to lead."

[Emerald City]

Kerry, 60, a decorated Vietnam War veteran, questioned Bush's Sept. 11 response and often accused him of rushing into the "wrong war at the wrong time" in Iraq. He said the president refused to recognize problems at home and abroad, much less fix them.

On Tuesday, he criticized Bush on a spate of domestic issues plus Iraq, and said whoever was elected would face a long list of problems.

"I'm not pretending to anybody that it's a bed of roses," Kerry said.

With nearly 1 million jobs lost in Bush's term, pre-election surveys showed voters favoring Kerry over Bush on the economy and a majority believing the country was on the wrong track. Barely half approved of the president's job performance.

But most Americans also expected another terrorist strike, and they trusted Bush over Kerry to protect the country. No wartime president has lost on Election Day, though Presidents Truman and Johnson, both Democrats, opted against seeking re-election while fighting unpopular wars.

Turnout was the great unknown. Spending more money than ever to target voters, Democrats enlisted an army of paid organizers while Republicans issued marching orders by e-mail to legions of volunteers in the small towns and the farthest suburbs of battleground states.

Vying for 270 Electoral College votes, the candidates' playing field extended as far as two dozen states but focused on fewer than 10, primarily in the Midwest and Florida.

Despite spending caps, the candidates and their allies spent a combined $600 million on television ads, more than twice the total in 2000,

The legal fees piled up, too. Both sides braced for recounts and other court challenges.

Democrats nurtured faint hopes of winning back the Senate, where Republicans held a 51-48 advantage. Only nine of 34 Senate races on the ballot appeared competitive, seven of them in states where Kerry had not seriously contested Bush.

In South Dakota, all eyes were on the race between the Senate's top Democrat, Tom Daschle, and Republican rival John Thune.

All 435 House seats are up for election, but Democrats had little hope of a takeover. Republicans hold 227 seats, Democrats 205, with one Democratic-leaning independent and two vacancies in Republican-held seats.

Eleven gubernatorial contests were being decided Tuesday, along with 5,800 legislative seats in 44 states.

Among the notable ballot measures was one in California to devote $3 billion for stem cell research. Several states had propositions that would ban gay marriage.