Déjà vu: US elections go down to the wire

FOUR years ago, after a bitterly-fought election campaign that led to 36 days of uncertainty, George W Bush was declared US President by the tiny winning margin of 572 votes.

Four years later, as America goes to the polls today, all the signs are that history may well repeat itself.

Last night, in the wake of a flurry of late opinion polls, strategists for both the Democratic and Republican Parties were saying the outcome of ten key States, mostly in the midwest, were too close to call.

Both Mr Bush and his rival John Kerry returned to their home States last night to cast their votes today.

The shape of the next four years to come should become apparent sometime after midnight (Irish time), though early predictions will be tempered by the fact that in 2000, all the networks called Florida wrongly, based on early returns.

In a frenetic and exhausting final day, both Mr Bush and Mr Kerry criss-crossed the battleground states in an attempt to gain a last-minute advantage.

Both candidates looked tired in public appearances yesterday following a week of whistle-stop visits to the swing states, from New Hampshire in the North East to Florida in the southeast.

Mr Bush promised that America would remain “safe” and “secure” under his control while Mr Kerry repeated his attacks on the president over his tax breaks for richer Americans and his ‘incompetent’ handling of the Iraq war. Both expressed themselves confident of victory.

However, strategists within both parties agreed the election now hinges on the ‘ground war’, the ability of each side to mobilise their volunteers to maximise their vote. A record number of new voters has been registered for this campaign, mostly by the Democrats. But the lists of new voters has faced legal challenges and there have been allegations of fraud, smear campaigns and intimidation from both sides.

The Democrats have drafted in 10,000 lawyers to monitor the elections in the face of strong challenges from Republicans over the validity of voters in key battleground states. A raft of writs have also been issued challenging rulings made by authorities in the two key states, Florida and Ohio.

On the eve of the election, several major media organisations published nationwide polls that showed the candidates to be within one or two percentage points of each other.

According to Democrat strategists Ohio and Florida are now beginning to swing towards Mr Kerry. Some analysts have also been talking up the possibility of a repeat of 2000, when Al Gore garnered half a million more votes than Mr Bush nationally but still lost the election because he lost out in key states. However, some analysts were suggesting such a scenario would ultimately favour Mr Kerry rather than the president.