A few votes could go a long way in this year’s midterm elections, which contain some of the tightest races in U.S. history.

“This could be a long wait — as long as it was for president [in 2000],” said Steffen Schmidt, university professor of political science. “There are too many close races.”

In Iowa, four of the five races for U.S. House are extremely close. Only in District 5, along the western edge of the state, does the Republican candidate have a clear lead.

The Senate race between Democrat Tom Harkin and Republican Greg Ganske could determine who has control of the U.S. Senate, where Democrats and Republicans each hold 49 seats following the death of Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn. One independent, Sen. James Jeffords of Vermont, votes with the Democrats.

Another independent, Dean Barkley, was appointed by Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura as Wellstone’s replacement on Monday.

Voters in 34 states will choose senators. Republicans are defending 20 seats; the Democrats, 14.

The party that controls the Senate will make two important decisions, Schmidt said.

One is seating justices on the Supreme Court.

“If Republicans control the Senate, it’s likely Bush will have an easier time seating more conservative Supreme Court justices,” Schmidt said.

The other issue is the creation of the Department of Homeland Security.

“The Senate has refused to pass it because they feel it gives too much power to the president,” Schmidt said. “If Republicans win control, creation of the new federal agency would be very, very likely.”

All 435 House seats are up for election. The makeup is 223 Republicans, 208 Democrats, one independent and three vacancies.

The party that holds 218 seats after the election gets to install the speaker, run the committees and fix the agenda.

Historically, the president’s party has lost seats in midterm elections, but Schmidt said that trend might be changing. The reason — Bush is an incredibly popular president.

“Bush has an enormous approval rating — higher even than Reagan and Clinton,” he said. “Also, the negatives are very low. Bush as a president does have a lot of support.”

For this election, both parties have mobilized more volunteers to encourage people to vote.

Democrats began canvassing in the summer, said Jan Bauer, chairwoman of Story County Democrats.

“We contacted voters who typically aren’t engaged in non-presidential years,” Bauer said. “We encouraged them to vote by absentee.”

She said more than 3,300 Democrats have voted by absentee ballot in Story County.

The Republicans also contacted potential voters, said James Carstensen, communications director for Latham for Congress.

“We had lots of volunteers in Story County going door-to-door and calling people to remind them to vote,” Carstensen said. “I think there’s going to be a big turnout.”

The Republicans also encouraged absentee voting. Carstensen said he did not know exact numbers, but response has been “pretty positive.”

Schmidt said because the races are likely to be close, all votes are going to count.

It also means the losing party could demand a recount — particularly in Minnesota, where Democrat Walter Mondale had only a week to campaign following Wellstone’s death, and Louisiana, where the top two candidates will compete in a runoff if no one wins a 50 percent majority.

“It’s going to be very, very close,” Schmidt said. “It could be a long, long, long wait.”