Bush Appears Close to Victory As Kerry Considers Ohio Fight

GOP Adds to Majority in Senate, and Possibly House

Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards tells a crowd in Boston that he and Kerry plan to continue their fight. (Michael Williamson -- The Washington Post)

President Bush moved to the brink of securing his bid for reelection early this morning, winning the prized battleground of Florida and holding what appeared to be an insurmountable lead over Sen. John F. Kerry in Ohio. But the Massachusetts senator considered continuing his battle to win the White House with a fight over provisional ballots in the Buckeye State.

With reports of pandemonium inside the campaign, Kerry's running mate, Sen. John Edwards (N.C.), appeared at Boston's Copley Plaza at 2:30 a.m. vowing to continue the fight. "John Kerry and I made a promise to the American people that in this election every vote would count and every vote would be counted. Tonight we are keeping our word and we will fight for every vote. You deserve no less."

Bush had planned to speak to supporters once the results were clear but held off once Edwards made his announcement, with aides expressing irritation at the Democrats. At the time Edwards spoke, Bush, who lost the popular vote four years ago, was leading Kerry by more than 3.7 million votes nationally -- 51 percent to 48 percent. He had 254 electoral votes to Kerry's 242. To win the presidency, 270 votes are needed.

As the presidential election headed toward potential legal wrangling, Republicans expanded their majority in the Senate and appeared likely to do the same in the House. In Senate races, the GOP picked up open Democratic seats in Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina and South Carolina, while Democrats captured open Republican seats in Illinois and Colorado. In the most closely watched race, Senate Democratic leader Thomas A. Daschle was trailing former House member John Thune (R) in South Dakota.

In Ohio, with nearly all the votes counted, Bush led 51 to 49 percent and a margin of 140,000 votes. Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell (R) estimated that there will be 175,000 provisional ballots by the time the counties finish their tabulations. Democrats said there could be as many as 250,000.

The state's Republican senators, George V. Voinovich and Mike DeWine, issued a statement calling on Kerry to concede the state, arguing that he could not make up his deficit with the provisional ballots. "Senator Kerry should concede defeat and spare the country the turmoil of another drawn-out election," the statement said.

Kerry advisers said there would be no decision until later today, but some Kerry sources indicated that he is not likely to continue his candidacy if the odds look hopeless.

Michigan tipped to Kerry early this morning and Nevada went to Bush. With Ohio's 20 electoral votes, Nevada was enough to give him the presidency.

As the Kerry campaign closed down for the night, three other states remained in play: Wisconsin, Iowa and New Mexico. Bush led in New Mexico by less than 2,000 votes and in Iowa by about 11,000 votes. Kerry led in Wisconsin by about 20,000 votes. Recount provisions varied in some of the remaining closely contested states.

With the election shaped by the fight against terrorism and the country deeply divided over the war in Iraq and the economy, energized voters poured out in extraordinary numbers nationwide, prodded by the two campaigns, which worked overtime to get their supporters to the polls.

After a night of agonizing counting and mood changes inside the campaigns, the 2004 election appeared to be a virtual rerun of the hard-fought contest that gave Bush the presidency four years ago. The Kerry campaign rested its hopes on provisional ballots -- those cast by voters who were not on registrars' rolls yesterday -- and other ballots still uncounted in Ohio, which Republicans said still would not be enough to carry the state.

Polling places in some battlegrounds, including Ohio, stayed open long after their scheduled closings as officials struggled to handle a surge in turnout that some experts said could match the most recent high-water mark, set in 1992 -- and perhaps exceed it. Despite threats of legal challenges and other disruptions, voting generally appeared to go smoothly in most states.

Early exit polls appeared to give Kerry a small advantage, but as the night wore on and the actual vote tallies mounted, Democratic exuberance gave way to tense hours of counting and increasing pessimism. When the president fought off Kerry's challenge in Florida, the state that produced the bitter 36-day recount battle four years ago, he significantly complicated Kerry's route to the 270 electoral votes needed to win.

The pattern of the returns proved to be a virtual rerun of the 2000 election, with many of the states that created such drama in that contest once again keeping the candidates and the American people on edge as they watched returns roll in. By early this morning, only one state had switched sides, with Kerry taking back New Hampshire from the Republicans.