Another controversy erupts as no clear winner chosen

Nov. 4, 2004
By Dan Tomlin
Sports Editor

No concession speeches, no acceptance speeches, neither candidate could be projected to have 270 electoral votes. When Election Day was all said and done the race for the 2004 presidency had turned from a sprint into a crawl.

In the waning hours of the night, some news channels gave the state of Ohio and their 20 electoral votes to the incumbent President George W. Bush, while others were leery and left it up for grabs.

With Ohio, the President has assured himself of four more years in office, as the Buckeye State would put him over that 270 mark.

While the people of Ohio woke up on Wednesday morning to controversy eerily similar to that of Florida in 2000, both parties believed their side would win.

At press time the President held a lead of over 130,000 votes in Ohio, with mail-in votes being the last hope for the challenger.

In the popular vote the President won by more then 3.5 million votes.

According to President Bush’s Chief of Staff Andy Card, the secretary of state’s office in Ohio has said the margin in Ohio is statistically insurmountable for John Kerry, even after the provisional ballots are considered.

“We are convinced that President Bush has won re-election with at least 286 electoral votes,” Card said Wed. morning in an address to Bush supporters. “In this election President Bush has received more votes then any presidential candidate in our countries history.”

In a race that was seemingly up a dead heat for the last six weeks election night proved to be no different, although Kerry fans would’ve liked to have seen a different outcome.

“I thought it would be closer,” president of the St. Ambrose chapter of College Democrats, Amanda Elkins said. “I think the George W. Bush may have presented himself as more down to Earth.”

Bush supporters were happy to see the results, considering all the attention around the Kerry campaign along with celebrity influence.

“I was nervous going into the election because celebrities had been endorsing John Kerry and I didn’t give people our age enough credit to see through that,” Bush supporter Katie Kerr said. “I was wrong, thankfully, and enough of them decided not to jump on the bandwagon.”
For Sen. John Kerry the day which started so promising with exit polls showing his campaign having a huge edge over the President ended up quite the opposite.

Polls also showed that while Iraq and the war on terrorism had been the hot button topics of the entire campaign season, on voting day the number one issue for voters was ‘moral issues’.
“So much of the election focus on the war and the economy,” Amanda Elkins said. “I was surprised to see that it was the moral issues that people voted on. Neither Kerry or Bush really did anything extraordinary for that.”

Bush supporters such as Kerr came out in large numbers though to vote for their President based on just those issues.

“I was really surprised the majority of America voted based on moral issues,” Kerr said. “That’s how I came to my decision, but to see people with a conscience was a pleasant surprise.”

In Iowa, as of press time, President Bush had come from a large deficit early to take the lead by the narrowest of margins at just over 15,000 votes. With a large number of absentee ballots, the state of Iowa could come down to the mail-ins.

Scott County was Kerry country as the Democrat won by just under 2,000 votes.

With Ohio still under dispute, John Edwards came out to address the faithful, which had been assembled for hours in the rain, early Wednesday morning.

“We’ve waited four years for this, we can wait one more night,” the Vice Presidential nominee said. “Every vote will be counted.”

While voter turnout seems to be in record numbers, and such almost a 50/50 split on electing a new leader, it remains to be seen whether or not people will once again become unified with a common goal.

“I hope people can see eye to eye on things,” Elkins said. “Unfortunately I just don’t see it happening.”

Kerr on the other hand believes that this election will just strengthen the countries resolve.

“I think after a couple weeks once it sets in everything will be back to normal,” Kerr said.

“We’ll start to think about what’s important like the troops and that will bring us all together.”
American now waits to see who will be President of the United States of America for the next four years and whether or not that person can put the “United” back into America.

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