The fate of Michigan and the country still hung in the balance early Wednesday morning.
Early ballot counts showed President Bush at an advantage, but exit polling showed Sen. John Kerry ahead.
Republican supporters at the Republican Victory Night Party in the Capital Ballroom of the Radisson Hotel Lansing were glued to the televisions and repeatedly changed the channel, anxious to get any news on the presidential race.
The sense of excitement was obvious; the room periodically erupting as Bush was shown to be leading in numerous states, including Florida and Ohio.
In Detroit, Gov. Jennifer Granholm refrained from making any premature announcements to Kerry supporters at the Michigan Democratic Coordinated Campaign election party in the Renaissance Ballroom of the Marriott Hotel.
Although the governor predicted earlier in the evening that John Kerry would take Michigan's 17 electoral votes, Granholm spokeswoman Heidi Hansen said the Michigan tally was too close to call.
"They're still counting votes," she said. "They need a large enough amount to declare it.
"We're optimistic it's going to be Kerry, but we have to be sure."
Meanwhile, Michigan Republican Party Chairwoman Betsy DeVos triumphantly declared that Michigan was purple, referring to the state's political color changing from the Democrat Party's blue to the Republican Party's red.
"It's not yet red, but its moving there," DeVos said. "I'm just going to be really happy if we have a decision tonight, and a clear decision."
U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., echoed DeVos' sentiment.
"All the states that we thought the president would win, he's won," Rogers said. "But nobody's really going to know who won until tomorrow morning."
Other guests at the party included U.S. Rep. Candice Miller, R-Mich.
Holly Hughes, the Republican national committeewoman for Michigan, said she was pleasantly surprised with the president's early national lead.
"It feels good, but we're not quite there yet," Hughes said. "270 - that's the number we need."
The election night was reminiscent of the controversial contest four years ago, in which Bush won by a mere 537 votes. Former Vice President Al Gore won the popular vote, but the disputed votes gave Bush the nod in Florida to win the Electoral College, with 271 electoral votes to Gore's 266.
Michigan has 17 electoral votes, which are a combination of the state's two U.S. senators and 15 U.S. representatives. The three states with the largest populations - California, Texas and New York - have 55, 34 and 31 electoral votes respectively. The smallest states have only 3 votes.
The president made 16 stops to the state from the time the campaign began until Thursday, when he campaigned in Pontiac. Since March 2003, Kerry made 14 visits to Michigan, often focusing on jobs, the war in Iraq and health care.
The candidates repeatedly touched on issues central to Michiganians throughout the campaign, including diversion of Great Lakes water, border security and the state's more than 200,000 jobs lost since he took office.
Democrat U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow said she expects an answer on the new president tonight by watching the swing states, including Michigan and Ohio.
"We're getting there, we're winning," Stabenow reassured one partygoer intensely watching a television in the hotel ballroom.
Stabenow said she has seen many elections, but this one is a little different.
"It's the number of young people and the determination of people to have their votes counted," she said. "In the end, if John Kerry is elected, it will be because of young people and first-time voters.
"It bodes well for the future."
Part of the young crowd in the ballroom was Adrienne Holmes, 24, of Detroit. She wore a white "Vote or Die" T-shirt made popular this year by rapper P. Diddy.
"It might be pretty close," Holmes said. "Right now it just depends on the big states."
But Holmes said she is hopeful Kerry will pull ahead for the win.
"Bush made a lot of wrong decisions in the last two years," she said. "We need Democratic leadership - we need change."
