Kerry takes Michigan, Bush wins Chippewa County

SooToday.com was up very, very earlier this morning, bright-eyed and Bushy-tailed (sorry!), hoping to break the news from the U.S. presidential race as soon as it was declared.

No such luck.

It's another cliffhanger, with the offical outcome possibly more than a week off. At time of writing, President Bush had 269 electoral votes, one short of what he needs to win.

Ohio has emerged as the final battleground in Election 2004.

There, 250,000 provisional and absentee ballots remain to be counted.

Early Wednesday morning, Bush had a slight lead but the Ohio race was considered too close to call and one official said it could be eleven days before the final count is in.

But White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card confirmed this morning that the Bush-Cheney campaign is convinced President Bush has been re-elected.

"President Bush decided to give Sen. Kerry the respect of more time to reflect on the results of this election," Card told reporters, promsing that the president will make a statement later today.

There are also delayed results in New Mexico (because of problems with absenttee ballots) and in Iowa (broken voting machines and delays in the arrival or opening of absentee ballots).

In Michigan, John Kerry was declared winner early this morning. As of 5:45 a.m., with 93 percent of precincts reporting, Kerry had 51 percent of votes cast, compared to 48 percent for President Bush.

Chippewa County was taken by Bush, who collected 9,122 votes (55 percent), compared to 7,203 (44 percent) for Kerry.

Independent Ralph Nader received 100 Chippewa County votes (1 percent).