US election too close, so it's a recount

The race for the White House hung on 987 votes in Florida last night as the American presidential election remained too close to declare a winner.

In a night of drama, see-sawing fortunes and miscalled results, the election took an extraordinary turn when Vice-President Al Gore conceded the race, then 90 minutes later retracted his concession at 4 am American eastern time (10 pm) as the state of Florida balanced on a knife-edge.

As Gore supporters outside his headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee, chanted "recount, recount," campaign chairman William Daley told the throng the campaign would continue until Mr Gore was officially declared the winner.

But Bush campaign chairman Don Evans told crowds in Texas: "They are still counting. I am confident when all is said and done we will prevail."

Under Florida state law, a margin so close automatically triggers a recount.

As the long American election night dragged towards dawn, Mr Gore and Mr Bush abandoned their speeches until official results in Florida had been declared.

After 18 months of intense campaigning, the two candidates were deadlocked in the popular vote.

Mr Gore edged ahead of Mr Bush by 269,904 of the 95 million votes cast - one of the closest results ever.

The Vice-President received 47,788,828 votes and Mr Bush 47,518,924.

Green Party candidate Ralph Nader's 2.5 million votes could have made the difference.

Control of the White House came down to just a few of the nearly 6 million votes cast in Florida for its vital 25 Electoral College seats in America's indirect voting system.

The race for Florida was so close that American television networks called the state twice - once for Mr Gore, once for Mr Bush - and twice retracted.

An official recount is is being made today.

The knife-edge vote leaves both candidates short of the 270 electoral college votes needed to enter the White House.

Last night, Mr Gore had 249 electoral votes to Mr Bush's 246.

Both need Florida's seats to win.

Projections gave the race to Mr Bush at 2.20 am eastern time, and Mr Gore phoned his opponent, congratulating him as a formidable opponent and saying the campaign had proved a cliffhanger.

But at 4 am, as the Democrats alleged discrepancies and irregularities over the vote count in Florida, Mr Gore phoned Mr Bush a second time to retract his concession.

The states of Oregon (seven seats) and Wisconsin (11) were still undecided last night.

Under the American system, voters in 50 states and the District of Columbia select 538 representatives to the Electoral College, which formally votes for the President.

Mr Bush, the son of a president and grandson of a senator who nevertheless portrayed himself in 18 months of campaigning as an affable outsider, easily took his home state of Texas.

He swept the South, the Midwest and even poached New Hampshire, a traditionally liberal Democrat state. But he was well beaten in the two biggest states, New York and California.

Mr Gore suffered the embarrassment of losing his home state of Tennessee. Democrat President Bill Clinton's home state of Arkansas also fell to the Republicans.

The Republicans also narrowly retained control of both houses of Congress.

If Mr Bush is elected, he will become the first Republican president since Dwight Eisenhower in 1952 to have the luxury of his party controlling both branches of American government.

The Democrats did have some good fortune.

First Lady Hillary Clinton, who stood by her husband through the Monica Lewinsky scandal, made history by winning the New York seat in the Senate.

Also making history of a kind was the Democratic Governor of Missouri, Mel Carnahan, who died in a plane crash three weeks ago but still won election to the Senate because his name could not be removed from the ballot in time. His widow will take his place.

A big race about relatively minor issues, the election brought a high voter turnout.

The wait for the presidential nominees as the lead changed again and again through the night was excruciating.

Mr Bush changed his plans to watch returns with a large group of family and friends over a meal at a hotel, retreating instead to seclusion in the Governor's mansion.

As the night began, Mr Bush drew first blood by taking Kentucky, which voted for Mr Clinton in 1992 and 1996 and has voted for the winning candidate in every election since 1964, and the traditionally Republican Indiana.

But Mr Gore struck back with wins in the important states of Pennsylvania, Illinois and Michigan.

Then came the surprise of the night as Florida - an essential win for Mr Bush and held by his brother, Senator Jeb Bush - was called almost immediately for Mr Gore.

But Voter News Service, which transmits exit poll data to news organisations to project winners and losers, abruptly sent out a warning at 9.38 pm local time.

What went wrong was still unknown last night, but the message said: "We're cancelling the vote in County 16 (which includes the city of Jacksonville, with one million people).

"The vote is strange."

Forty minutes later, VNZ threw the entire state into doubt with a message to news organisations: "We're retracting our call in Florida because we don't have our previous confidence."

CNN and the other news channels immediately dropped predictions of a Gore win.

Before the late-night drama, Prime Minister Helen Clark congratulated Mr Bush on his election, and said she expected no fundamental changes in the New Zealand-US relationship.

"In a congratulatory message, I have told the President-elect that New Zealand is committed to the launch of a new World Trade Organisation round, an issue which is also a priority for the United States," she said.

The United States is New Zealand's second largest export market.

She also praised outgoing President Bill Clinton, whom she will meet for a fourth time next week at the Apec leaders' summit in Brunei.

"I have always been impressed by his commitment to a fairer, more prosperous world and his sure grasp of world affairs."

Herald Online feature: America votes