Undisputed

From staff and wire reports

President Bush won four more years in the White House on Wednesday, pocketing a public concession from Democrat John Kerry that closed out a loud and long campaign fought over the war on terror and the economy.

Students who did not submit absentee ballots for their home states voted in long lines in polling sites around the local community Tuesday.

While Bush declared victory in Tuesday's election after Kerry's concession, some student voters interviewed at polling sites said that they believed the Massachusetts senator was the better of the two candidates.

"It was more like picking the lesser of the two evils," freshmen Antonio Valdez said. "I don't think that the country will go anywhere with Bush and with at least Kerry there's a possibility that we could succeed."

Ohio's 20 electoral votes gave Bush 274 in the Associated Press count, four more than the 270 needed for victory. Kerry had 252 electoral votes, with Iowa (7) and New Mexico (5) unsettled.

Junior Jasper Seldin said that as a student, Kerry "would do a much better job creating employment for me when I'm coming out into the job market. We're all going to be college graduates and I think I'd much rather have someone like Kerry who's keeping jobs here instead of outsourcing them abroad."

For many students, homeland security was another issue that affected their vote. Senior Jennifer Field voted for Bush because she felt "We need a strong leader, no softies."

Tuesday evening, Santa Clara hosted a number of election parties across campus in the Bronco and the lounges of resident halls Dunne, Swig and Sanfilippo. But rather than follow the results publicly, many students opted to watch from their rooms.

Sophomore Alex Walter watched the early hours of news coverage but stopped to do homework because he felt he had already learned what he wanted to know.

Others were unenthusiastic about tuning in to watch the results because they felt the outcome was predictable.

"Everything they're reporting right now is exactly the same as four years ago," said MBA student Court Showerman.

Among student reactions:

* "Bush scares me," first-year law student Braeden Sullivan 22 said. "The war, gay marriage, politics in general, the fact that he's so conservative, the supreme court vacancies, all sorts of stuff."

* "I'm against the war in Iraq and I don't like Bush's ultra-conservative views," freshman Cristina Tazza said. "I don't like his ban on gay marriage."

Republicans counted on their own nationwide effort to mobilize, particularly in small towns and distant suburbs, where they hope the president's opposition to gay marriage, abortion and gun control give him an opening with conservative Democrats.

Across half the country, polls closed in more than two dozen states Tuesday evening, but the race was wide open. It was too close to call in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida, which combined for 68 electoral votes, one-fourth of the coveted total of 270.

One student said that he had problems registering locally and had to fill out a different, provisional ballot.

"It was really hard to register," Valdez said. "I think the school could have helped us out with filling out the ballots, especially for us freshmen who are voting for the first time. We really didn't know what to do."

Figures tabulated Wednesday by The Associated Press showed that 114.9 million people had voted with 99 percent of precincts reporting. Some analysts put the total turnout at nearly 120 million people. That represents just under 60 percent of eligible voters -- the highest percentage turnout since 1968.

* Nicole LaPrade, David Wilson, Andrea Barrack, Hilary Tone, Christen Cabe, Lindsey Hart, Liz Weeker and Jack Gillum contributed to this report.