2004 U.S. presidential election timeline

This page contains incomplete information on the latest election-day developments of the 2004 US presidential election. For a more in-depth discussion of the candidates and issues at stake in that election and the campaign history leading up to election day, see U.S. presidential election, 2004. For information on other national races conducted the same day, see U.S. Senate election, 2004 and U.S. House election, 2004.

Events

• Citizens in two tiny New Hampshire towns were the first to have their ballots counted in the 2004 U.S. presidential election. In Dixville Notch, the more famous of the two due to its longstanding tradition of early voting, the incumbent lost ground compared to his showing in 2000, but got more total votes than the challenger: Bush — 19, Kerry — 7. Bush also won the vote in Hart's Location, which managed to report its results slightly earlier this year; Bush — 16, Kerry — 14, and Nader — 1. (4:00 AM EST (UTC-05:00), November 2, 2004, Associated Press (Associated Press) (Reuters)) In both cases this represented a small swing compared with the 2000 results from the Republican candidate to the Democratic candidate.
• "U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens Tuesday allowed Republicans to challenge voter qualifications at the polls in Ohio, a key battleground state that could determine the presidential election. Stevens acted on an emergency request shortly before polls opened in Ohio and across the nation." He refused to set aside a U.S. appeals court order, issued Monday, which, reversing a lower court's ban, permitted political party members to challenge the credentials of potential voters at polling places across the state.-Reuters (http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6689186) (Bloomberg (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=a7QdNFNQp7NY&refer=top_world_news))
• Some (http://www.nbc-2.com/articles/readarticle.asp?articleid=1661&z=3&p=) reports (http://washingtontimes.com/metro/20041101-110119-6698r.htm) say Florida, Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C., (and possibly other states) have received record numbers of requests for absentee ballots for this election. Absentee ballots are counted differently based on the state (http://www.electionline.org/site/docs/html/counting_absentee_ballots.htm), with most states counting them on election day, but with some exceptions, the last deadline being 10 days after the election (all Washington, D.C. absentee ballots, and overseas absentee ballots in Ohio and Florida). Washington State allows 15 days after the election for out of country absentee ballots to come in. It is possible that absentee ballots are being requested due to concerns about electronic voting, or simply due to an expected high overall voter turnout.
• Early exit polling shows strong Kerry battleground states edge (http://www.mydd.com/story/2004/11/2/135756/299). Early exit polling has in the past tended to favor Republicans, though it favored Al Gore in several key states in the 2000 election.
• Leroy Chiao, currently stationed on the International Space Station, cast his vote by encrypted e-mail and became the first American to vote in a presidental election from space.
• Slate (http://slate.msn.com/id/2109053/) reports exit polls from ten states, with John Kerry winning in Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota and New Mexico. Bush projected to win in Nevada, North Carolina and Colorado. Together with the polls from MyDD there are results from 14 states. Kerry leads with 114 electoral votes, while Bush has 48.
• Zogby (http://www.zogby.com/) predicts a decisive 311 to 213 win for Kerry with 14 electoral votes too close to call.
• CNN (http://www.cnn.com/) projects Indiana, Kentucky, and Georgia for Bush. Vermont is projected for Kerry. CBS (http://election.cbsnews.com/election2004/) and FoxNews (http://www.foxnews.com/) concur. Based on these projections, the electoral vote is 34 for Bush, 3 for Kerry.
• Yahoo! News ([1]) is calling West Virginia for George W. Bush, making the projected electoral vote 39 for Bush, 3 for Kerry. CNN and NBC News both concur.

Odds

• On Tradesports, the Bush futures contract has dropped from about 53, where it has been for the past several days, to about 30, in about an hour. On Betfair the odds on a Bush victory have increased from 1.9 to 3.8 over the last day.

• Oddschecker gives real time odds and accurate reflection of probabilities from various UK bookmakers. Good breakdown of battle ground states as well.

• The Iowa Futures Market has shown Bush losing ground recently and Kerry picking up.

• The price of light crude oil dropped yesterday by nearly $1.63 (3.2%), suggesting that traders speculate a win for Kerry and that this would lead to an easing of the geopolitical tension that caused prices to rise earlier in the year.

Poll closings

See U.S. Election Atlas for poll closing times and network calls.

Projections

As of the poll closings at 19:30 EST, President George Bush is projected to win: Indiana, Georgia, Kentucky and West Virginia. Senator John Kerry is projected for Vermont. North and South Carolina and Virginia are too close to call. Naturally, one of the most hotly fought states, Ohio, is still undecided and will likely remain so for several days.

Results

Fox News, BBC News, CBS News, The New York Times and CNN.com have created maps that give live election results as they happen.

Election Results
National 538 Candidate Electoral Votes Pop. Votes Pop. Vote % Bush 39 1,880,833 57% Kerry 3 1,410,904 43% Others 0 11,702 0.00 % [2]
Alabama 9 Candidate Popular Votes Popular Vote % Bush 0 0.00% Kerry 0 0.00% Others 0 0.00%
Alaska 3 Candidate Popular Votes Popular Vote % Bush 0 0.00% Kerry 0 0.00% Others 0 0.00%
Arizona 10 Candidate Popular Votes Popular Vote % Bush 0 0.00% Kerry 0 0.00% Others 0 0.00%
Arkansas 6 Candidate Popular Votes Popular Vote % Bush 0 0.00% Kerry 0 0.00% Others 0 0.00%
California 55 Candidate Popular Votes Popular Vote % Bush 0 0.00% Kerry 0 0.00% Others 0 0.00%
Colorado* 9 Candidate Popular Votes Popular Vote % Bush 0 0.00% Kerry 0 0.00% Others 0 0.00%
Connecticut 7 Candidate Popular Votes Popular Vote % Bush 0 0.00% Kerry 0 0.00% Others 0 0.00%
Delaware 3 Candidate Popular Votes Popular Vote % Bush 0 0.00% Kerry 0 0.00% Others 0 0.00%
District of Columbia 3 Candidate Popular Votes Popular Vote % Bush 0 0.00% Kerry 0 0.00% Others 0 0.00%
Florida 27 Candidate Popular Votes Popular Vote % Bush 51 0.00% Kerry 49 0.00% Others 0 0.00% [3]
Georgia 15 Candidate Popular Votes Popular Vote % Bush 0 0.00% Kerry 0 0.00% Others 0 0.00%
Hawaii 4 Candidate Popular Votes Popular Vote % Bush 0 0.00% Kerry 0 0.00% Others 0 0.00%
Idaho 4 Candidate Popular Votes Popular Vote % Bush 0 0.00% Kerry 0 0.00% Others 0 0.00%
Illinois 21 Candidate Popular Votes Popular Vote % Bush 0 0.00% Kerry 0 0.00% Others 0 0.00%
Indiana 11 Candidate Popular Votes Popular Vote % Bush 307,274 0.00% Kerry 206,096 0.00% Others 3,446 0.00% [4]
Iowa 7 Candidate Popular Votes Popular Vote % Bush 50 0.00% Kerry 49 0.00% Others 0 0.00% [5]
Kansas 6 Candidate Popular Votes Popular Vote % Bush 0 0.00% Kerry 0 0.00% Others 0 0.00%
Kentucky 8 Candidate Popular Votes Popular Vote % Bush 0 0.00% Kerry 0 0.00% Others 0 0.00%
Louisiana 9 Candidate Popular Votes Popular Vote % Bush 0 0.00% Kerry 0 0.00% Others 0 0.00%
Maine At-Large** 2 Candidate Popular Votes Popular Vote % Kerry 0 0.00% Bush 0 0.00% Others 0 0.00% Maine District 1** 1 Candidate Popular Votes Popular Vote % Bush 0 0.00% Kerry 0 0.00% Others 0 0.00% Maine District 2** 1 Candidate Popular Votes Popular Vote % Bush 0 0.00% Kerry 0 0.00% Others 0 0.00%
Maryland 10 Candidate Popular Votes Popular Vote % Bush 0 0.00% Kerry 0 0.00% Others 0 0.00%
Massachusetts 12 Candidate Popular Votes Popular Vote % Bush 0 0.00% Kerry 0 0.00% Others 0 0.00%
Michigan 17 Candidate Popular Votes Popular Vote % Bush 52 0.00% Kerry 46 0.00% Others 1 0.00% [6]
Minnesota 10 Candidate Popular Votes Popular Vote % Bush 52 0.00% Kerry 46 0.00% Others 2 0.00%
Mississippi 6 Candidate Popular Votes Popular Vote % Bush 0 0.00% Kerry 0 0.00% Others 0 0.00%
Missouri 11 Candidate Popular Votes Popular Vote % Bush 0 0.00% Kerry 0 0.00% Others 0 0.00%
Montana 3 Candidate Popular Votes Popular Vote % Bush 0 0.00% Kerry 0 0.00% Others 0 0.00%
Nebraska** 5 Candidate Popular Votes Popular Vote % Bush 0 0.00% Kerry 0 0.00% Others 0 0.00%
Nevada 5 Candidate Popular Votes Popular Vote % Bush 0 0.00% Kerry 0 0.00% Others 0 0.00%
New Hampshire 4 Candidate Popular Votes Popular Vote % Bush 54 61.40% Kerry 44 36.84% Others 1 1.75% [7] [8]
New Jersey 15 Candidate Popular Votes Popular Vote % Bush 0 0.00% Kerry 0 0.00% Others 0 0.00%
New Mexico 5 Candidate Popular Votes Popular Vote % Bush 50 0.00% Kerry 48 0.00% Others 1 0.00% [9]
New York 31 Candidate Popular Votes Popular Vote % Bush 0 0.00% Kerry 0 0.00% Others 0 0.00%
North Carolina 15 Candidate Popular Votes Popular Vote % Bush 0 0.00% Kerry 0 0.00% Others 0 0.00%
North Dakota 3 Candidate Popular Votes Popular Vote % Bush 0 0.00% Kerry 0 0.00% Others 0 0.00%
Ohio 20 Candidate Popular Votes Popular Vote % Bush 51 0.00% Kerry 49 0.00% Others 0 0.00% [10]
Oklahoma 7 Candidate Popular Votes Popular Vote % Bush 0 0.00% Kerry 0 0.00% Others 0 0.00%
Oregon 7 Candidate Popular Votes Popular Vote % Bush 0 0.00% Kerry 0 0.00% Others 0 0.00%
Pennsylvania 21 Candidate Popular Votes Popular Vote % Bush 53 0.00% Kerry 46 0.00% Others 0 0.00% [11]
Rhode Island 4 Candidate Popular Votes Popular Vote % Bush 0 0.00% Kerry 0 0.00% Others 0 0.00%
South Carolina 8 Candidate Popular Votes Popular Vote % Bush 0 0.00% Kerry 0 0.00% Others 0 0.00%
South Dakota 3 Candidate Popular Votes Popular Vote % Bush 0 0.00% Kerry 0 0.00% Others 0 0.00%
Tennessee 11 Candidate Popular Votes Popular Vote % Bush 0 0.00% Kerry 0 0.00% Others 0 0.00%
Texas 34 Candidate Popular Votes Popular Vote % Bush 0 0.00% Kerry 0 0.00% Others 0 0.00%
Utah 5 Candidate Popular Votes Popular Vote % Bush 0 0.00% Kerry 0 0.00% Others 0 0.00%
Vermont 3 Candidate Popular Votes Popular Vote % Bush 0 0.00% Kerry 0 0.00% Others 0 0.00%
Virginia 13 Candidate Popular Votes Popular Vote % Bush 0 0.00% Kerry 0 0.00% Others 0 0.00%
Washington 11 Candidate Popular Votes Popular Vote % Bush 0 0.00% Kerry 0 0.00% Others 0 0.00%
West Virginia 5 Candidate Popular Votes Popular Vote % Bush 0 0.00% Kerry 0 0.00% Others 0 0.00%
Wisconsin 10 Candidate Popular Votes Popular Vote % Bush 51 0.00% Kerry 48 0.00% Others 1 0.00% [12]
Wyoming 3 Candidate Popular Votes Popular Vote % Bush 0 0.00% Kerry 0 0.00% Others 0 0.00%

Third Party Totals (other)
Others	Votes	Vote %
Michael Badnarik (Libertarian Party)	0	0.00%
Walt Brown (Socialist Party USA)	0	0.00%
Roger Calero / James Harris (Socialist Workers Party)	0	0.00%
David Cobb (Green Party)	0	0.00%
Ralph Nader (Reform Party)[13]	1	1.75%
Michael Peroutka (Constitution Party)	0	0.00%
Bill Van Auken (Socialist Equality Party)	0	0.00%

*-Colorado has a Constitutional amendment on the ballot this year which would change the process by which its electoral votes are distributed. Results of the vote follow:

Colorado Amendment 36
Position	Votes	Vote %
Yes (proportional split)	0	0.00%
No (remains winner-take-all)	0	0.00%

**-Maine and Nebraska are unlike the other 48 states and the District of Columbia in that they allocate their electoral votes in the following manner: 1 for the winner of each Congressional district, 2 for the state winner. Neither state has ever split the vote.

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File:Electoral map450.jpg

Presidential electoral votes by state. The candidate who accumulates at least 270 electoral votes out of a total 538 is elected President.