With 51 percent of the popular vote, President George W. Bush has defeated Senator John Kerry (D – Mass.) in the hotly contested presidential election.
Early in the morning Nov. 3, the networks called the swing state of Florida, the site of the recount controversy of the last election, for Bush.
Fifty-two percent of voters in the Sunshine State favored Bush, compared to 47 percent for Kerry.
As of that morning, another battleground state, Ohio, also appeared to be in Bush’s corner. With 99 percent of the votes reported, Bush led Kerry 51 to 48.5 percent with a margin of about 130,000 votes.
The Kerry campaign, however, hesitated to relinquish the state until all votes had been tallied.
Senator John Edwards (D – N.C.), Kerry’s running mate, spoke to a small group of Kerry supporters in Boston, and urged them to wait for the 175,000 outstanding provisional ballots to be counted.
“We made a promise to the people that every vote will be counted,” he said. “It’s been a long night, but we’ve waited four years for this victory. We can wait one more night.”
A few hours later, however, Kerry conceded. Around 11:15 a.m., he called Bush to congratulate him on his victory.
The New York Times reported that Stephanie Cutter, Kerry’s press secretary, said that the conversation was “courteous,” and that Kerry told Bush that he must “unify this country.”
Kerry won the same states that Gore did four years ago, while Bush carried the same states that went for him in 2000, with the exception of New Hampshire.
While there had been many predictions over the past few months that the youth vote would be a major factor in this election, CNN reported no change from the 2000 election, with only 17 percent of voters aged 18 to 29 going to the polls.
Many students from the college, however, participated in this election.
“At one point there were so many Guilford students that it seemed as if there was an announcement on campus to go and vote,” Todd Depinto, the chief judge at the polling station at the Greek Orthodox Church on Westridge Road, said.
Students from the college who cast their ballots at that polling station seemed excited, yet apprehensive, as they anticipated the outcome.
“I’m really nervous,” first-year Kaitlin Sunby said. “I probably won’t sleep tonight.”
“If Bush remains in office, I’m moving to Sicily,” first-year Johanna Naradzya, whose grandmother is Sicilian, said.
“I will be scared for the U.S. if Georgy gets elected,” said first-year Sarah Pearson-Moyers.
Naradzya added, “I will be scared for the rest of the world.”
Many students watched television in residence hall lounges to follow election proceedings. Ten students did homework, played cards and chatted nervously in the Underground as they watched the elections unfold.
Gloom and despair filled the room, as the newscasters announced a Bush victory in North Carolina. Someone shouted, “Got hope?”
“We are all going to die,” said first-year Claire Foxman, while spreading cheese on her Ritz cracker. “That’s why I love my cheese. Bush can never take my cheese.”
Bush did garner some support on campus, however.
Senior Mark Davis said he is happy with the president’s performance.
“I think he has done a good job so far,” Davis, who sported a “Michael Moore Can Kiss My Republican Ass” T-shirt Election Day, said. “He’s kept our country safe, and I think that’s the most important thing. I think he’s going to continue to deal with Iraq, national security, and the economy.”
In North Carolina, Governor Mike Easley retained his seat, defeating Republican Patrick Ballantine. Richard Burr won a close Senate race with Democrat Erskine Bowles for Edwards’s vacated seat in the Senate, and Guilford alum Howard Coble, congressman for the sixth district of North Carolina, was elected to his twelfth term.
Nationally, Republicans led Democrats 53 seats to 44 in the Senate, 229 to 200 in the House, and 28 wins to the Democrat’s 21 for gubernatorial races.
Perhaps the most shocking blow for the Democrats was Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle’s (D – S.D.) loss to Rep. John Thune (R – S.D.).
Democrats did have much to cheer for in Illinois, where Barack Obama, the senator for the 13th district of Illinois, handily defeated Republican Alan Keyes to become the third black senator in 150 years.
Out west, Colorado’s attorney general Ken Salazar defeated Republican Pete Coors, chairman of the Coors Brewing Co., to become the first Hispanic elected to the Senate in 25 years.
Voters in 11 states – Ohio, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Michigan, North Dakota, Arkansas, Montana, Utah, and Oklahoma – also voted in favor of state constitutional amendments to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman. California voters approved Proposition 71, allocating $3 billion for stem cell research.