Bush, Kerry in tense sprint to finish

President George W. Bush and Democratic Senator John Kerry began a tense sprint to the finish yesterday in a deadlocked race for the White House, hunting for every last vote in the crucial showdown states of Ohio and Florida.

With a flurry of new polls showing the race an absolute dead heat, the candidates tried to fire up their base supporters as their eight-month campaign for the White House wound down to an unpredictable final 48 hours.

Mr Kerry reached out to blacks, the most loyal of Democratic voters, with a highly personal appeal at a morning church service in Dayton, Ohio. He asked the churchgoers to enlist in his campaign for social and economic justice.

"That is the choice in this race my friends," the Massachusetts senator told more than 1,000 parishioners crammed into a Baptist church. "It is a choice about what kind of country and society we'll have."

Mr Bush stayed on the offensive in Florida, urging supporters to "come stand with me" and repeating his attacks on Mr Kerry as a weak-kneed and flip-flopping leader.

"If you believe America should fight the war on terror with all our might, and lead with unwavering confidence in our ideals, I ask you: Come stand with me," Mr Bush said to roars at a rally in Miami after attending Catholic Mass at the home church of his brother, Florida Governor Jeb Bush.

Several new polls showed the race deadlocked heading into the last two days. New tracking polls from Reuters/ Zogby and ABC News/Washington Post showed the same result - Mr Bush and Mr Kerry in an exact tie at 48 per cent each.

A few independent polls gave an edge to Mr Bush, but two other polls, from Fox News and American Research Group, also showed a tie in a three-way race that included independent candidate Ralph Nader.

Americans also will decide the balance of power in Congress and vote on governorships in 11 states tomorrow, with Republicans favored to retain control of both the Senate and House of Representatives.

Mr Bush and Mr Kerry spent the day in the two biggest toss-up swing states - Ohio and Florida - in an effort to piece together the 270 electoral votes needed to claim the presidency. Mr Kerry needs to win at least one to have a realistic shot at the White House, and the race is close in both.

At his morning appearance in Dayton, a reflective Kerry said "these have been long months" and quoted scripture to the congregation, saying he did not feel like running through his usual list of issues in the campaign.

"I just don't feel kind of that's what's right for this Sunday two days before the election," Mr Kerry said.

In Florida, Mr Bush said Mr Kerry had put himself into the "flip-flop hall of fame" after first voting for a version of an $87 billion funding bill mostly for the US military in Iraq and then voting against it.

Nearly two million Floridians have cast early ballots in the election as officials across the country reported record levels of early voting. The watchdog group Common Cause, which set up a hotline to record complaints about voting problems, said it had received more than 53,000 calls nationally.

Both campaigns geared up armies of volunteers to help turn out voters in an election where an organised ground game could make the difference.

Mr Kerry's running mate, John Edwards, told a predominantly black church in Jacksonville, Florida, yesterday to take advantage of early voting rules and cast ballots immediately after the service.

"There are forces, there are powerful forces, fighting against justice," Mr Edwards said, referring to Florida's chaotic balloting and election recount dispute in 2000. "We're going to make sure your votes are counted this time."

Vice President Dick Cheney planned to head to Hawaii yesterday for a quick visit to mobilise Republicans in the normally Democratic state and try to claim its four electoral votes, which went easily to Democrat Al Gore in 2000.

Before he left, he told supporters in Swanton, Ohio, that Mr Kerry was making "phony charges" about Mr Bush taking his eye off the hunt for bin Laden in Afghanistan. He said the charge was an insult to US troops and their victories.

"Instead of praising their achievement, John Kerry harps away at phony charges," the vice president said.

Both camps expressed optimism about the outcome with a certainty that was not apparent in any public opinion polls. Bush political adviser Karl Rove said Mr Kerry needed to sweep Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota to have a shot.

"All we have to do is take one. And we're going to take more than one," Mr Rove said.

Kerry adviser Joe Lockhart said the race would turn on 12 remaining battleground states "and we're tied or leading in ten of them."