Ohio — the must-win state at the heart of the presidential election

IT ALL comes down to 270.

And Interstate-270 arguably is the geographic centre of the 2004 presidential election in must-win Ohio, if not the nation.

"The votes along I-270 may very well be the key for Kerry to winning 270 electoral votes," said Jennifer Palmieri, Kerry's Ohio campaign spokeswoman.

"The size and competitiveness of the area inside and outside of I-270 make it crucial," said Doug Preisse, chairman of the Franklin County Republican Party. "The fact that it's the geographic heart of the state and the state capital lends it extra symbolic importance."

As the presidential race rockets to a conclusion tomorrow maybe Ohio has held the nation's attention.

Between March 3, when Mr Kerry

became the presumptive Democratic nominee, and election day, Mr Bush and Mr Kerry and their running mates, Dick Cheney and John Edwards, will have made 81 campaign visits to the state; all four were in Ohio on Sunday and all except for Cheney were back yesterday.

"I've never seen anything like it, period, and I'm looking at more than 30 years of this," said Paul Tipps, chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party from 1975-83. "It just says everything about how important Ohio is."