Though both presidential candidates had spent part of their last full day campaigning in Wisconsin, the race for the state’s 10 electoral votes was far from over early Wednesday.
Sen. John Kerry held a narrow lead after what appeared to be record turnouts throughout the state. Just after midnight, with 63 percent of the precincts counted, Kerry had 50 percent of the vote while President Bush had 49 percent.
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“Well, you guys, this is getting to be an every-four-year ritual,” Gov. Jim Doyle told volunteers at a Kerry rally in Milwaukee. “We are ahead. There are still some good Democratic counties that are coming in.”
Both candidates devoted considerable energy to the state, which Bush lost by fewer than 6,000 votes in 2000. They made frequent visits to the state and their campaigns contacted millions of potential voters.
The president’s strategy focused on making sure voters in rural and suburban areas that tend to favor Bush made it to the polls, while using the issues of faith and security to lure voters from traditional Democratic areas. Kerry’s campaign hammered away at everything from health care to federal dairy policy and registered thousands of new voters.
One of the new voters was Cecilia Gregory, 28, who showed up at the Lancaster School in Milwaukee wearing a a “Vote or Die” T-shirt. She said she decided to vote for the first time because of the war in Iraq, where her brother served in the military.
But Jason and Danyelle Stoval, also new voters, said they planned to vote for Bush because of his religious convictions.