You have to fight, for your right, to run this country

The election is not officially over. Vice-presidential candidate John Edwards, in a 2:30 a.m. speech in Boston Wednesday morning, pledged to keep fighting until the last vote was counted.

"We waited four years for this victory," he said. "We can wait one more night."

The issue of Ohio's 20 electoral votes and the neck-and-neck race between President Bush and Senator Kerry made declaring a definitive winner in the election impossible on Tuesday night.

Surprisingly, there weren't any discrepancies in the state of Florida. The counting of Florida's approximately 90,000 absentee ballots, which is expected to continue until Thursday, Nov. 4, should have been an issue of major scrutiny. However, Bush was estimated to have a lead of about 300,000 votes in the state of Florida.

Bush, with 51 percent, won the majority of the popular vote, while Kerry won 48 percent. It was estimated that a record 120 million voters showed up to the polls. The day before the election, Reuters polls showed that 10 states were statistically tied in voter support, while nationally the candidates were tied at 49 percent each.

Jon Stewart, host of the late-night cable fake news program "The Daily Show," said on his special election-night show that there were three possible outcomes of the election: Kerry wins, Bush wins, or civil war.

Mike Gaughran, an Adelphi University sophomore and loyal Democrat, was despondent when reached early Wednesday morning.

"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't really disappointed," he said. "I'm so furious at the Bush administration for everything that has gone on, but also because I've poured so much time and energy into supporting the Kerry campaign."

Keith Voss Jun, Republican and Marist student, was not surprised to go to bed Tuesday night without really knowing who won for sure.

"I expected it to be really close like the 2000 election," Jun said. "I wouldn't be surprised if it takes a few days to find out who wins."

Stephen Krill, a Marist sophomore and Republican, was proud of Bush's majority in the popular vote.

"Yes, I thought he was a better choice than Kerry," Krill said. "I think most people saw that."

One of the other notable results of the day's voting was that voters in 10 states across the country approved constitutional amendments that will ban homosexual marriages. Additionally, the Republicans strengthened their grip on the Senate with victories in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. California voted to spend $3 billion on state-funded stem cell research.

One controversial ballot issue that may have been rendered moot by Tuesday's results was the option in Colorado to split the state's electoral votes proportionally by support for each candidate, breaking from the winner-take-all standard. The measure did not pass, and the country was spared from weeks of legal sniping and outrage.

One problem for Senators Kerry and Edwards throughout their campaign was their difficulty in sending a consistent message. Kerry's nuanced positions on everything from Iraq to whom his favorite daughter is contrasted sharply in the eyes of voters with the image that President Bush presented. Throughout his campaign, Bush consistently appeared strong and steadfast, even in the face of changing information.