Decision day in the United States as campaigns await presidential results

ATLANTA (CNN) -- The din of the campaign gave way to the quiet of the voting booth Tuesday as Americans prepared to name either Vice President Al Gore or Texas Gov. George W. Bush their 43rd president.

Voters came out to deliver a final verdict in a down-to-
the-wire race, with both major-party candidates running close in several states rich in electoral votes -- Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Missouri and Gore's home state of Tennessee among them.

Bush, the Republican nominee, was set to greet the results at a rally in the Texas capital of Austin with his running mate, former Defense Secretary Dick Cheney. Gore, the Democrats' standard-bearer, will be in Nashville, Tennessee, the seat of his campaign: He will be joined by his vice presidential pick, Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, and their wives.

Both candidates spent their last day of campaigning hammering home the themes they stressed throughout the past year and a half on the stump.

Gore has cast the election as a referendum on the prosperity of the past few years, warning that Bush's plans for a $1 trillion-plus tax cut would undercut the foundations of the economic boom. He criticized Bush's proposal to partially privatize Social Security, saying Bush has promised about $1 trillion from the Social Security Trust Fund to two groups of people: younger workers, who would be allowed to privately invest a share of their payroll taxes; and older Americans who need that money to pay current benefits.

Gore wound up a 30-hour final blitz of campaign stops in Florida before flying home to Tennessee early Tuesday. The Gores voted at a school in Elmwood, near their home in Carthage, before the vice president gave a civics lesson on the importance of voting to fifth-grade students.

"I voted for my husband Al Gore and it was a thrill," Tipper Gore said after casting her ballot. "It was wonderful. It was very exciting."

Gore promises to add a prescription drug benefit to Medicare, the federal medical insurance program for seniors. He has vowed to diminish the roles of a variety of special interests in Washington, saying through the course of his last weekend of campaigning: "I can say 'no' to the special interests with a smile." And he has tried to cast doubts upon the Texas governor's ability to handle the complexities of the job.

Vice President Al Gore and his wife Tipper address supporters in Waterloo, Iowa, on Monday

Gore, who has been criticized throughout the campaign for being stiff and condescending, urged voters Monday to remember that the presidency is not a "popularity contest."

"I think it's a day-by-day fight for real people who are sometimes up against powerful forces -- real people who need someone will to fight to do the right thing, to pick the hard right over the easy wrong," he said.

Gore and President Clinton credit their administration's eight-year federal budgeting strategy for turning the recession of the early 1990s into an atmosphere that has brought about that balanced budget agreement, some 22 million news jobs, and low rates of unemployment in most regions of the country.

Bush -- whose father, George Bush, was ousted by Clinton in 1992 for the presidency in the wake of the last national economic downturn -- argues that though the economy has shown improvement since his father left office, the reasons have little to nothing at all to do with Gore or Clinton.

But with voters unlikely to want broad economic reforms, Bush has chosen instead to focus on other sensitive areas for overhaul. Those include the public education system; the armed forces; the 35-year-old Medicare health insurance program; and Social Security.

Bush also called for a new era of "responsibility" in and promised to ease the partisan rancor that has characterized much of American politics in recent years, citing his ability to work with legislators on both sides of the aisle in Texas.

And he included a call to restore honor to the White House in nearly every campaign appearance -- a not-so-subtle reference to Clinton's affair with a former White House intern, which led to his 1998 impeachment and acquittal by the Senate the following year.

Bush voted Tuesday in Austin, telling reporters, "We had a long day yesterday, but I feel great."

"I've been making some phone calls this morning," he said. "I've called my parents first thing when I woke up to assure them that I'm feeling pretty good about it ... that we've done all we can do, and it's up to the people of the country to make up their mind."

Campaigns frantically pushing turnout

Texas Gov. George W. Bush makes a last-minute campaign stop to Chattanooga, Tennessee, on Monday

With the race so close, the campaigns worked frantically to get their supporters out to the polls Tuesday.

The Gore campaign estimated that it will have put about 50,000 volunteers into the field during the campaign, sent 50 million pieces of direct mail, made 40 million phone calls and sent 30 million pieces of e-mail by the time polls close Tuesday.

Bush strategist Karl Rove said Monday the Bush campaign will have sent as many as 243,000 volunteers onto the streets in 28 battleground states, making up to 70 million phone calls and sending out 110 million pieces of mail.

Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer claimed the race's momentum was with the Texas governor Monday.

"We made the decision to really hit and hit hard all all these key battleground states here in the final several days," Fleischer said. "The governor of course was in Florida all day yesterday, Pennsylvania the day before and Michigan the day before that. But all these smaller states add up to a victory, and we're running very strong in a lot of states Republicans traditionally don't run strong in."

Gore adviser Bob Shrum said Monday that Democratic research suggests a higher turnout in this election than in 1996. He discounted pundits' speculation that one candidate could win the popular vote but lose in the Electoral College -- and predicted both would break in the vice president's favor.

"I think we are going to win the Electoral College," Shrum said. "I think the electoral map works for us. I also think we are going to win the popular vote."

Most expensive race in history

The vote will also bring down the curtain on a bruising, 18-month campaign that has cost an estimated $3 billion for all federal offices -- the most expensive in U.S. history and considerably larger than the $2.2 billion spent in 1996, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Bush alone spent nearly $100 million to win the Republican primaries; Gore, about $48 million during the primary season, the center estimated.

Overall, Bush has raised more than $187 million during the campaign, including $67 million in federal matching funds, and spent $167 million. Gore raised $133 million, including $83 million in federal matching funds, and spent more than $99 million.

Their main primary challengers -- Arizona Sen. John McCain for Bush, and former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley for Gore -- both campaigned on a platform of overhauling the way federal campaigns are funded. Both were knocked out of the race by March.

Third parties seek to influence future races

While Bush and Gore sprinted around the country hoping to secure the winning margin in the upper Midwest and along the East Coast, minor-party candidates Nader and Buchanan vowed their movements would remain active into the next election cycle.

Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan and Green Party candidate Ralph Nader

Gore had to spend more time and money in some states that normally would be considered reliably Democratic because of Green Party Candidate Ralph Nader's challenge from his left.

Nader told CNN his party is the fastest growing in America and will field "thousands of candidates, not hundreds" in mid-term elections in 2002.

"We're going to do what the majority of people really like even if they aren't going to vote for a third party, which is to establish a viable third party to keep those two parties (Democrats and Republicans) honest in the future. It is that watchdog function that is so critical," Nader said.

Meanwhile, Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan -- who secured $12.6 million in federal matching funds after the party's raucous convention in August -- said he would be around to serve as a conservative watchdog over a Republican administration.

Buchanan had challenged Bush's father in the 1992 Republican primaries. Asked about the likelihood of a Bush win, Buchanan said, "If there is another Bush in the White House, there will be another Buchanan watchdog right outside the White House."