Americans vote tomorrow

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33066, 6 November 1972, Page 17

Americans vote tomorrow

(N.Z P.A -Reuter—Copyright) WASHINGTON, Nov. 5

The American Presidential Election campaign is winding through its final week-end today with President Nixon resting at his California home while his Democratic challenger, Senator George McGovern, continues his hectic hunt for votes.

The President plans only one more campaign event, an election-eve television address tomorrow night. Yesterday he spoke to airport rallies at Greensboro, North Carolina; Albequerque, New Mexico: and Ontario, California.

Senator McGovern is in St Louis, Missouri, early today, and will later go on to New York. Mr Nixon told cheering crowds at his three stops yesterday that the war was indeed nearing an end, and that a vote for his re-election would mean peace with honour abroad and economic recovery without inflation at home.

Senator McGovern, who had warmly greeted the first reports of an apparent settlement of the war, changed to a harder line on Friday night, in a hastily-arranged I television speech, and continued his harsh attack at a

press conference yesterday before leaving Chicago. He described the peace negotiations as “a cynical effort to deceive the American people,” and added: “If Mr Nixon is re-elected on Tuesday, we may very well have four more years of war. Don’t let this man trick you again.” Senator McGovern campaigned through Illinois, Arkansas, and Texas, picking up a warm endorsement from the former President, Mr Lyndon Johnson, but only through a telephone call during a campaign stop in Waco, Texas. The Democratic candidate told a largely MexicanAmerican audience at Corpus Christi, Texas—his final stop of the day—that Mr Nixon would get the surprise of his life when the votes were counted on Tuesday night.

The South Dakota senator maintained his air of confidence in spite of the public opinion polls that show him trailing the President by more than 20 percentage points. Mr Nixon, insisting that a break-through had been achieved towards peace in Indo-China and towards the return of American prisoners from North Vietnam, was cheered when he again said: “When this war is over, there

will be no amnesty for draftdodgers or deserters” —an obvious answer to Senator McGovern’s plan to grant amnesty after the war ends to those who fled from the draft. Mr Nixon will remain in California until after he and Mrs Nixon have cast their vetes on Tuesday. He will then fly back to the White House, to await the election returns.