President Bush defeated Democrat John Kerry in Iowa by roughly 10,000 votes — or less than 1 percent of the 1.5 million ballots cast, according to unofficial election results.
The results released Wednesday by Iowa Secretary of State Chet Culver showed Bush with 751,957 votes to 741,898 for Kerry, a margin of 10,059.
While narrow, the margin was more than double the 2000 edge in Iowa, where Democrat Al Gore defeated Bush by 4,144 votes.
Voter turnout was high in Iowa with 72 percent of eligible voters showing up at the polls. There were 1,506,907 votes cast for president in the state, with 2,106,658 voters registered.
As elsewhere in the country, independent Ralph Nader wasn’t much of a factor in the state, drawing just 5,973 votes. The vote totals will remain unofficial until Nov. 29 when they are certified by the state’s Executive Council, a panel of statewide elected officials.
The results mean Iowa’s seven electoral votes go into the Republican column for the first time since 1984.
