Bush looks like winner in Ohio

COLUMBUS, Ohio — News organizations declared President Bush a winner in the most hotly contested state in the 2004 election, but Democrats refused to concede in an election marked by extraordinary legal wrangling.

With 87 percent of the state’s precincts reporting, Mr. Bush had 2,485,860 votes (51 percent) to 2,357,347 (48 percent) for Democratic Sen. John Kerry.

Those numbers were enough for NBC and Fox News to declare a Bush victory in Ohio, but Kerry campaign officials issued a statement saying that they would win the state. A Kerry win would require that the remaining uncounted ballots in Ohio break to the Democrat by a margin of more than 2-to-1.

Polls in two Ohio counties remained open at least three hours past their scheduled closing times last night, after a judge ruled in favor of a lawsuit by state Democrats, the latest in a slew of legal challenges that have marked the state’s hard-fought presidential race.

The Democrats’ lawsuit to keep the polls open in Franklin and Knox counties reminded some Republicans of a similar suit filed in Missouri in 2000 that kept polls open an extra 45 minutes in St. Louis, a Democratic stronghold.

The Democrats sued, said Michael Deemer, legal counsel for the Ohio Senate Minority (Democratic) Caucus, because voters were found to be waiting in long lines in Franklin and Knox counties.

Democrats asked that an alternative method of voting, either with provisional ballots or with separate paper ballots, be allowed to accommodate the throngs of people. The judge ruled that paper ballots for the old punch-card system be used for those in line.

State law dictates than anyone standing in line before the polls close will get to vote. Carlo LoParo, spokesman for the Ohio secretary of state, said that office would not oppose the ruling. A source close to the state GOP, however, said Republican lawyers were contemplating a court fight.

Another late-afternoon lawsuit was filed in Blackwell and Hamilton counties, citing the landmark 2000 Bush v. Gore decision and arguing that those areas are not using a standard to count provisional ballots.

The plaintiff in the case is listed as Audrey Schoring. Her party affiliation was not clear last night.

Mr. LoParo said the state will oppose that case. “We disagree with the [lawsuit], and we will respond in court,” he said last night. “It will be resolved after the election.”

Republicans in Ohio have long been readying their own strategy to counter Democratic efforts to “change the rules” during the election, a tactic they oppose.

“This is exactly what was expected,” said Republican lawyer Brett Sciotto, who was monitoring the polling places in the suburbs of Cleveland last night. “This is a typical Democratic tactic, and we are prepared to counter it.”

The late-in-the-day lawsuit was hardly unexpected by political analysts in Ohio, who have watched more than 5,000 election lawyers descend on their state prepared to litigate if the result is close.

Ohio voters began flocking to the polls to choose their president before dawn yesterday and stood in line in steady rain — often for more than an hour — making good on analysts’ predictions of a record turnout.

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