The outcome of the 2004 US presidential election remained uncertain early
Wednesday morning, with the Democrats refusing to admit defeat in Ohio, a
decisive state in this year's race for the White House.
With 80 percent of the nation's precincts reporting, Democratic candidate
John Kerry won 48 percent of the popular votes, while incumbent Republican
George W. Bush claimed 51 percent of the votes.
Bush won 27 states for 249 votes, and Kerry won 16 states and the District of
Columbia for 221 votes. A candidate needs 270 votes to win the presidency.
While CBS and Fox News projected Bush the winner in Ohio, which has 20 of the
538 electoral college votes that could decide who would become the winner of the
presidential election, other TV networks were cautious in their projections. The
Kerry campaign, meanwhile, refused to admit defeat in the state.
"The vote count in Ohio has not been completed. There are more than 250,000
remaining votes to be counted. We believe when they are, John Kerry will win
Ohio," Kerry campaign manager Mary Beth Cahill said in a statement.
TV networks projected Bush had received 51 percent of the votes,against 49
percent for Kerry, with over 90 percent of the precincts reporting in the state.
In Boston, Massachusetts, Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards
vowed the party would "fight for every vote," refusing to concede defeat in the
key state of Ohio.
"It's been a long night. But we've waited four years for this victory. We can
wait one more night," Edwards told a supporters ata rally in Boston, the
hometown of Democratic presidential contender John Kerry.
"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," he said, adding that
the Democrats would "fight for every vote."
If the 20 electoral votes of Ohio were counted, Bush would have amassed a
total of 269 electoral votes, only one vote short for him to be reelected for
another four-year term.
Bush won almost all the states that he won four years ago, including Alabama,
Alaska, Colorado and Florida, scene of the disputed 2000 election that gave him
the presidency, and Kerry carried nearly all the states that voted for
Democratic candidate Al Gore in 2000.
In contests for seats in the Congress, TV networks projected that Republicans
had expanded their majority in the Senate and retained control of the House of
Representatives.