Last round exhausting for tied candidates

By ANDREW BUNCOMBE

Like two exhausted boxers in the final round of a gruelling title fight, President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry threw their last punches at each other yesterday as they raced across the American heartland making final appeals to voters.

The polls showed the two men locked in a statistical tie.

Bush embarked on a seven-stop tour taking in six states, making his case that he was best-equipped to protect the United States from terrorism and to strengthen the economy.

Kerry made five stops in four states, rallying supporters and trying to convince undecided voters that the US was ready for a change in direction and a change of leadership.

Bush started in Ohio, a state both sides are desperate to win, telling an early-morning rally in Wilmington: "I know the economy of this state has been through a lot, but we are moving in the right direction.

"We have to keep your taxes low, and I want you to remind your friends and neighbours that my opponent will raise the taxes on Ohio's families and Ohio's small businesses."

The President travelled on to Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Iowa and New Mexico, and planned to talk to a home-state rally in Dallas, Texas, before stopping off at his ranch in Crawford. He returns to Washington today.

At an equally early appearance yesterday in Orlando, Florida, Kerry asked supporters: "So are you ready to take this thing and finish it off and get the job done? This is not a day or a moment for a long speech. You know why you're here and you know the job we have to get done in the last hours."

After Florida, Kerry was scheduled to make two stops in Ohio, one in Michigan and two in Wisconsin, ending the day in La Crosse, Wisconsin, about 21 hours after leaving Florida. He is expected to return to his home in Boston to watch today's events unfold.

The last-minute criss-crossing of the country by the candidates was little more than spectacle, an effort to maintain momentum until the end.

Most strategists believe the most important job on both sides belongs to the local organisers and activists responsible for getting their supporters to the polling stations. To use the well-worn phrase, it is all about getting out the vote.

Both sides have been confidently predicting victory.

The Democrats claimed that unprecedented voter interest would lead to a record turnout, while the Republicans said they had been working just as hard as the Democrats on voter registration and grassroots campaigning.

The Washington Post said both candidates had been backed by the biggest and most aggressive voter-mobilisation drive in the history of presidential politics, with hundreds of thousands of volunteers asked to make final appeals to voters.

Their efforts have ranged from knocking on doors, to staffing phone-banks, to handing out leaflets in the street.

In the final hours of the campaign, millions of Americans will be contacted by one or both of the parties, many of them more than once.

In Ohio, Democrats said they had 27,000 people working phone-banks. They made 399,446 calls on Monday.

Republicans said they had been making 400,000 calls a day in the state.

The Republicans have spent US$125 million ($183 million) on voter mobilisation, three times the amount spent in 2000. Democrats have spent US$60 million, double what they spent four years ago.

- INDEPENDENT