Control of Senate Hangs By Thread As Virginia Counts on

The course of George Bush's two remaining years in power hung in the balance yesterday as Virginia tallied up the final few votes of the race that could hand Democrats control of the Senate.

At Democratic campaign offices in Arlington yesterday, volunteers answered the phone chirping "Jim Webb, senator-elect", but the party knows they still need to win this seat. Mr Webb, who rode to popularity on anti-war sentiment, was tantalisingly close but still not assured of victory.

With 99.88% of the votes counted by noon yesterday, and all but three precincts reporting, Mr Webb held the slimmest of leads over the Republican incumbent, George Allen, barely 7,300 votes among the 2.37m cast. That is a margin of 0.3%, giving the Republicans ample ground for a recount.

With that prospect looming, the real business of counting votes got under way in a hushed courtroom, anonymous election officials performing the unseen tasks of sifting all the ballots cast on Tuesday to prepare the official content.

The mundane task of sorting votes had never seemed so important. But the high stakes - and the presence of lawyers from both campaigns - gave hardly any pause to Fred Berghoefer, who has served on the Arlington County electoral board for 15 years.

In this, as in every other election, there was a process to follow. Paper ballots and electronic voting records had to be "scrubbed" - readied for inspection by election officials - and decisions made on whether to accept provisional ballots.

Kenneth Motos, a graduate student in industrial psychology, turned up yesterday, hoping to persuade officials to include his vote, cast for Webb by provisional ballot on Tuesday because he was not on the voting list. "I want my vote to be counted," he said. "It may not determine anything but what is the point of voting at all, if you are not going to see it through to the end?"

There was no cause for hurry, or alarm, at the elevated stakes. "There can't be a challenge because there are no results to dispute at the moment," Mr Berghoefer said.

But there easily could be, as a codicil to one of the nastiest and fiercest fought races of these midterm elections.

As Tuesday night gave way to day with no signs of a clear victory, neither man appeared ready to give ground. At 1am yesterday, Mr Webb entered an election night party at a hotel in northern Virginia accompanied by bagpipes. That was the only ceremony before Mr Webb made his rather pre-emptory speech to the crowd. "I'd like to say the votes are in, and we won," he said. "This is a great moment for all of us."

In Richmond, Mr Allen appeared little inclined to step down, telling supporters: "Accuracy in elections will prevail." He added: "This has been an interesting election, and the election continues."

Under Virginia law, Mr Allen has the right to ask for a recount at state expense of an election where his opponent has a lead of less than 0.5% of the vote; Mr Webb is barely 0.3% ahead.

But while the stakes are high - both for Mr Allen's political career and the president's ability to dictate his agenda during his remaining two years in office - that may not be the most prudent path.

While Mr Allen may not be willing to concede the end of a political career that months ago had seemed destined to lead him to the White House, analysts suggested there would be little capital to gain from a long wrangle about an election result unlikely to change in his favour.

Republican officials in Richmond gave little indications of Mr Allen's intentions yesterday, telling reporters he would review his options once the official vote count is certified on November 27.

"No one is more interested in the outcome of this race in Virginia than are members of the Allen campaign," said Ed Gillespie, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee who has been advising the Allen campaign. But he added: "We'll want to see how the canvassing turns out."

However, Larry Sabato, a political scientist at the University of Virginia, said the recount would be a wasted exercise. The last recount in a statewide election in Virginia was triggered by a margin of 360 votes, and once the lengthy process of tabulating the materials from electronic voting machines and paper ballots was complete, barely two dozen votes had changed. "There is no chance that Allen can make up the votes or anything close to it," Mr Sabato said. "This race is over."