WASHINGTON, 6 November — US voters decided the fate of Congress yesterday with Republicans and Democrats kept on tenterhooks over one of the closest midterm election battles in decades. With the floundering economy topping the agenda and a showdown with Iraq also looming, the struggle for control of the Senate and House of Representatives was too close to call in many seats that could decide the future balance of power, according to polls.
President George W. Bush voted at the small town of Crawford near his Texas ranch, and amid predictions of a low turnout, encouraged supporters of both parties to cast ballots. "I hope people vote. I’m encouraging all people across this country to vote," said Bush who was to head back to the White House to hear the results that could decide the future of his policy program and affect his chances of re-election in 2004.
He admitted in speeches on the last day of campaigning Monday that the election would be "settled by a relatively small number of votes." The US leader has crisscrossed the country over the past five days supporting Republican candidates. Traditionally the president’s party loses seats in a midterm election. But Bush is determined to have his party recapture the Senate and hold the House to clear the way for his legislative agenda.
Democrats have been fighting hard to maintain or increase their one-seat majority in the 100-seat Senate and win seats in the 435-member House of Representatives. Thirty-six of the 50 state governor posts are also up for grabs.
Polling booths opened at 6:00 a.m. (1100 GMT) in the states of Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Virginia and shortly after other states. Alaska was to be the last state to close at 0400 GMT today.
States will stagger their openings according to the time zone and local electoral rules, with Hawaii, the westernmost state, being the last to close its polls. Computerized voting systems were used in many states, including Florida where ballot foul-ups held up the 2000 presidential for five weeks. This time the Florida vote went smoothly.
One elderly lady emerged from a voting station in Miami Beach, brandishing her registration card and shouting "last time I couldn’t vote!" — the electronic voting machines malfunctioned there during the Sept. 10 primary. Voters trudged through the snow to get to the polls in Minnesota state, one of the six to eight most closely fought Senate seat races that could decide the Senate battle.
Democrat former Vice President Walter Mondale has been brought out of retirement to take on the Republicans’ Norm Coleman after the death of Democrat incumbent Paul Wellstone in a plane crash 10 days before the vote.
Election officials reported a heavy turnout shortly after polling stations opened with people waiting up to 45 minutes in snowy Minneapolis.
Rival party workers waited outside polling stations across the country. But most voters had already made up their minds. "I want to make damn sure that the Republicans get a beating," said Democratic voter Daniel Cotlear, 47, as he walked out into the chilly air after voting at the Ashburton Elementary School polling station in the Washington suburb of Bethesda, Maryland, a wealthy Washington suburb. Nearby, at a different station, stalwart campaigners huddled with posters for a mix of candidates and causes, some 100 feet (30 meters) from the door, the legal limit.
In New York City, polling places were already busy at 7 a.m. (1200 GMT), as voters cast ballots before heading for work. "Democratic is who I vote on the economy; if it was foreign policy, Republican," New York voter Jim Fields said.
In Chevy Chase, Maryland, in the congressional district hotly contested by incumbent Republican Rep. Connie Morella and Democrat Chris Van Hollen, early turnout was extraordinarily high for a midterm election, one election official said, with the estimated waiting time to vote 30 minutes or more.
Republicans are in the majority in the House, holding 223 of the lower chamber’s 435 seats. But they are even with Democrats in the Senate. Each party has 49 seats, with independents in the other two seats, including one nominated to temporarily take Wellstone’s seat. Defeat for the Republicans could harm Bush’s re-election hopes in 2004. "His taking a high-profile role does invite people to vote on his policies. That could cut either way," said Jack Nagel, a political science professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
If Democrats retain a majority in the Senate, the atmosphere is likely to be "poisonous, ugly and mean-spirited," said Thomas Mann, a senior fellow of governance studies at the Brookings Institution.
Bush, who hopes to become the third president in a century to gain House seats in a midterm election after Roosevelt in 1934 and Clinton in 1998, spent the night on his Texas ranch after a one-day, four-state campaign swing. "Find good Texans and get them to vote," he told a Monday night rally in Dallas, where Republican state Attorney General John Cornyn’s lead in the Senate race against former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk has narrowed in some recent polls.
Bush voted at a firehouse near his ranch, telling bystanders, "I hope people vote. I’m encouraging all people across this country to vote." Bush then headed back to Washington to await election returns at the White House.
Democrats also sent their big guns out on Monday for a last day of campaigning, with Clinton, former Vice President Al Gore, Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle and House Democratic leader Richard Gephardt appearing across the country to stir up Democratic turnout. Democrats have been fighting an uphill battle to retake the House, but they hope history and voter unease about the economy work to their advantage. Public opinion polls show little evidence the nation’s lackluster economic performance is hurting Republicans.
The focus of the political battle has been the Senate, where results might not be clear immediately. A half-dozen races are so close that winners are not expected to be decided quickly. The strong likelihood of recounts and legal challenges could push back the final outcome by days or weeks. The scenario could become even more unwieldy if no Senate candidate wins 50 percent of the vote in Louisiana, forcing a Dec. 7 runoff between the state’s two top vote-getters that ultimately could decide which party holds Senate power.
Nationwide, voters have been barraged by waves of advertising paid for with record-setting amounts of campaign cash, as multiple races across the country set new state spending records.
By Friday, more than $900 million had already been spent on televised campaign ads nationwide this year, exceeding the $771 million spent on political ads during the presidential election year of 2000, according to figures compiled by the Campaign Media Analysis Group. (Agencies)
