Re-appearance of Florida Election Controversy?

“We enjoyed many political welcomes this time in Ohio. I think I’ll miss them,” said Robert Hammer (42), who cast his ballot in Columbus, the state capital of Ohio. He said that he could actually feel that Ohio’s political status has improved “from abandoned to too wanted.” In the 2000 presidential election, Democratic candidate Al Gore, who already presumed his defeat in Ohio, stopped visiting with the election a month away, but this time Ohio was the state where the two candidates—President George W. Bush and Democratic candidate John F. Kerry—visited 45 times.

“Now the election is over and there’ll be no more political advertisements on TV. Commercial ads will soon replace them and now is the time for us to go back to our normal life,” Hammer said. The Republican Party’s Ohio election campaign headquarters set up a large screen TV in the big conference room of the Hyatt Regency Hotel in downtown Columbus and watched the ballot counting process. As President Bush has been in the lead from the start, hundreds of Republicans, volunteer staff, and politicians, including Republican Gov. Bob Taft, have been in a buoyant mood.

“The two candidates’ frequent visits to Ohio made the state one of the major battlegrounds for achieving a victory,” said Herb Weisberg, a political professor at Ohio State University. The professor analyzed that the state was placed in the center of the fierce competition, in particular, since Senator John Kerry’s strong argument, saying that during the Bush administration, Ohio suffered 230,000 job losses. Weisberg expressed his worry, saying, “The last four years after the 2000 election was a time of partisanship. Now that this election has divided the nation in two, voters are likely to be more deeply split for the next four years.”

The major cities of Ohio, including Columbus and Cleveland, and nearby polling places, witnessed long lines of voters all day long.

“I’ve never waited to vote for this long. Three hours!” said Jim Halt (56), with an incredulous gesture, who cast his ballot in Columbus. The Gambier polling station near Columbus prepared only two electronic voting machines so that the waiting time was nearly seven hours. Some college student voters took a nap there or watched a movie on their laptop computers. In some polling stations, people were still voting for two hours after the polls closed. In one instance, as the rain continued in Columbus, the Democratic Party, worrying that newly registered voters might not come out to vote, arranged carpools.

Ohio, with more than 800,000 newly registered voters, was expected to be the source of conflict between the two parties surrounding the issue of the voter’s qualifications. However, as the Republican Party decided to keep an eye on it in the meantime, no unwelcomed affairs have happened. Currently, the Republican Party already filed a lawsuit, arguing that some of newly registered voters are unqualified. The federal court accepted the suit this morning and observers from the two parties presented themselves at polling stations to watch the voting process.

After voting at his hometown of Crawford, Texas, President Bush visited Ohio before his way back to the White House and expressed his gratitude to his supporters. The president also dropped by the office of the Republican Party. Seeing a volunteer staffer asking for support through a phone call, Bush took the phone and talked, “This is President Bush speaking,” which surprised the voter on the other side. Then he looked back at correspondents watching him and jokingly said, “One to zero.”

On the other hand, Democratic Party rival John Kerry is refusing to concede the counting results. Now, there is a stir going on again in Columbus.

konihong@donga.com