As the two blitzed through their final rallies in Florida, Ohio, Iowa, Wisconsin and other states late into the night, a flurry of national polls completed over the weekend showed them in a statistical tie. Neither candidate has been able to establish clear momentum.

Bush and Kerry had spent their final day on the campaign trail on Monday racing back and forth through a handful of crucial swing states in a last-ditch hunt for votes, as both men try to stitch together the 270 electoral votes needed to claim victory.

A latest poll of 10 swing states found Kerry trailing Bush in Ohio by six percentage points and the candidates in a tie in Florida at 48 percent each. Kerry led in six states, all won by Gore in 2000. To claim the White House, he will have to win some states taken by Bush in 2000.

Bush sounded confident after voting at the local firehouse near his ranch in Crawford, Texas.

"I believe I'm going to win," Bush told reporters before heading to the battleground state of Ohio to thank Republican election volunteers and then returning to the White House. "My hope, of course, is that this election ends tonight."

In his own drive to get voters to the polls, Kerry met Democratic activists in Wisconsin, a battleground state that allows same-day registration, and hammered Bush on his conduct of the Iraq war.

"You have a choice, all Americans have this choice today," the Massachusetts senator said before heading home to Boston to vote. "George Bush made his choices ... He made a choice without a plan to win the peace,"

Analysts predict the highest turnout for 40 years and both candidates were still campaigning on election day.

With the race so close, there are fears of a repeat of 2000's disputed result and subsequent legal wrangling.

In Florida, thousands of lawyers from the two political parties, as well as international election observers, have been drafted in amid reports of lost ballots, confusing voter technology and intimidation of voters.

However, Bush and Kerry have both said they do not think a protracted legal battle is likely.

In one sign of the legal battles, US Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens allowed Republicans to challenge voter qualifications inside polling stations in Ohio, a development that Democrats fear could be used to intimidate their core voters.

The first votes to be cast and counted on election day were on the east coast, in New Hampshire's North County, where a survey of a few dozen voters showed a narrow lead for Bush.

SWING STATE TENSION
Two of the biggest battlegrounds, Florida and Ohio -- both in Bush's column in 2000 -- were too close to call yesterday.

In Florida, each campaign said it was encouraged by the early voting. But the state's size and the diversity of its electorate, coupled with the emotions remaining from the 2000 recount, make it perhaps the most difficult battleground state to read.

Although a reported two million people have already cast their ballots in Florida during two weeks of advance polling, turnout was expected to be heavy on election day.

On Monday, people in some parts of Florida queued for several hours to take advantage of the last day of early voting.

Tensions are also high in the state of Ohio, which like Florida could prove decisive in the poll outcome.

Ohio, which no Republican has lost and still won the White House, appeared to be a tossup. The University of Cincinnati's Ohio Poll yesterday put Bush at 50.1 percent and Kerry at 49.2 percent, and a Columbus Dispatch poll on Sunday called the race 50-50, the closest in the poll's history.

Kerry must win at least one of those two states to have a realistic shot at victory, while a Bush loss in Florida would leave him in danger unless he could steal Pennsylvania or some Midwestern states like Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa -- all won by Gore in 2000.

Pennsylvania, once seen as leaning to Kerry, may have tightened up over the weekend. A victory by Bush in Pennsylvania, which Democrat Al Gore won four years ago, would create a huge hurdle to Kerry's hopes of winning the White House. Democratic strategists said they expect to win the state, albeit more narrowly than they once believed.

Three upper Midwest states also remain close. Minnesota continues to tilt toward Kerry, with Bush still hoping for an upset. In Wisconsin, both sides said the outcome is likely to be determined on the ground today. Bush strategists believe Iowa is the most likely state to take from the Democrats, but one adviser to Kerry said yesterday the state has begun to move his way.

Bush's campaign also sees New Mexico as a potential pickup, and Kerry's team believes the Democrat will take back New Hampshire. Democrats see Nevada as still in play, but the Bush camp believes it will remain in the red-state column. Bush is still fighting to win Michigan but appears to have an uphill fight.

Analysts say a higher than usual turnout may benefit Kerry, as first-time and occasional voters are more likely to vote for change. However, Americans are not in the habit of changing leaders during wartime and may in the end decide to stick with Bush.

(REUTERS/AFP/AP/WASHINGTON POST/BBC)