Presidential election down to

by Joe Holden editor in chief

"It's a going to be won by a whisker. From the beginning of September all indicators pointed to this happening," said Dr. James Hedtke, associate professor and chair of history and political science. In the closest and most heated election race in U.S. history, candidates George W. Bush,. Republican, and Al Gore, Democrat, were in a dead heat, making every vote count from the state of Florida. At press time Wednesday, 2/l0s of one percent of the vote would determine the next president.

Early Tuesday evening Florida's 25 electoral votes were given to Gore by all major television networks. Not long after it was reported that the vote in Florida was too close to count and was pulled from Gore's possession, leaving the 25 electoral votes game for either candidate. With more than 100,000 absentee ballots to count from Florida, voting officials cannot tell who will win the electoral votes or when a decision will be available; however the state was given to Bush at 2 a.m. Wednesday morning and then taken back due to the closeness of the race. Gore and Bush are tied with 249 electoral votes apiece with 270 electoral votes needed to win. The 25 electoral votes up in the air from Florida will make it 274 electoral votes for one of the two.

"This Q election is close. That's it, it's close. In the tainted election of 1824 where John Quincy Adams won by a small margin, he was only a one-term president," Hedtke said. "In every close election, great re-