Tallahassee Democrat from Tallahassee, Florida • Page 3

HHH.TII.llSSIK.rom Election 2004 Tallahassee Democrat Wednesday, November 3, 2004 3A U.S. SENATE sfi HanrSBOiies Son niogBnt r5 I fcw ,1.1, Less than 39,000 votes separate the two hopefuls By Brendan Partington THE ASSOCIATED PRESS MIAMI The race to replace Sen. Bob Graham was nearly even late Tuesday as Republican Mel Martinez led Democrat Betty Castor by less than 39,000 votes out of more than 6.3 million counted. Martinez was hoping to become the first Cuban-American senator and Castor was trying to become the state's first woman senator since Graham beat Republican Paula Hawkins 18 years ago. With 7,039 of 7,241 precincts reporting, Martinez had 3,327,990 votes, or 49 percent, compared with Castor's 3,279,833 votes, or 49 percent.