Kerry, Bush target swing states
Democrat stumps in Florida, president in New Mexico
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 What would happen if the elected president doesn't win the popular vote?
 President Bush stumps in Florida, with just days before Election Day.
 Sen. John Kerry mines for electoral gold in Colorado.
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FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida (CNN) -- Sen. John Kerry and President Bush spent the weekend battling for votes in swing states as the presidential race wound down to the November 2 election.
"You know, we've just got nine days to go, and the voters have a clear choice between two very different candidates with dramatically different approaches and records," Bush told an audience Sunday in Alamogordo, New Mexico, where statewide polls show the candidates running neck and neck. (Showdown state New Mexico)
"You know where I stand and sometimes you even know where my opponent stands. We both have records. I'm proudly running on mine," Bush said.
Kerry was in Florida, where he spoke to a mostly black church for the fourth consecutive Sunday, promising members of a Fort Lauderdale congregation that their votes would be counted.
"I want you to turn out," Kerry said.
Fort Lauderdale is in heavily Democratic Broward County, which experienced some of the worst of Florida's vote-counting problems in the 2000 election.
In 2000, Democratic candidate Al Gore lost the state by only 537 votes after a Supreme Court decision halted all recounts, effectively settling the disputed vote more than a month after Election Day. (Showdown state Florida)
Kerry also responded to a comment Bush made during a television interview when he was asked whether the country would always be vulnerable to terrorist attack.
"Yes, because we have to be right 100 percent of the time in disrupting any plot and they have to be right once," Bush said in an excerpt from an interview to be broadcast Monday on Fox News. "America is safer under the course of action we've taken, but not yet safe. Whether or not we can be ever fully safe is up, you know, is up in the air."
Kerry likened the comment to one Bush made during the Republican National Convention in September -- later withdrawn -- that the war on terror could not be won.
"Let me tell you something, ladies and gentlemen. You make me president of the United States, we are going to win the war on terror," Kerry said at a rally in Boca Raton. "It is not going to be up in the air whether or not we make America safe."
Both candidates picked up newspaper endorsements in key battleground states Sunday. (Full story)
In Ohio, The Columbus Dispatch, which traditionally supports the Republican ticket, gave Bush the nod but said it was "less than enthused" about the choices.
The race between Bush and Kerry is too close to call in polls of likely voters in Ohio, which has 20 electoral votes and is seen as a possible key to any victory in the presidential race. (Showdown state Ohio) (CNN.com's Poll Tracker)
In other battleground states, Kerry picked up endorsements from The Des Moines Register in Iowa and Florida's Orlando Sentinel, which had backed Bush in 2000.
In the week ahead, both campaigns will be bringing out the stars to join the candidates on the trail.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will travel with Bush late in the week for a high-profile trip to Ohio, senior campaign officials said Sunday.
Former President Clinton will join Kerry at a rally Monday in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and in Florida the next day, campaign officials said.
Clinton's public role in the campaign has been limited since he underwent quadruple coronary artery bypass surgery September 6.
Last week, Schwarzenegger broke ranks with Bush on the issue of stem cell research; the Bush campaign has been in talks with the governor for weeks to arrange the joint appearance.
Gore, who is on a tour of mostly black churches in Florida, told a congregation Sunday in Jacksonville that if members were embittered by his narrow loss in 2000, "it doesn't have to be this way."
"Don't turn it into angry acts or angry words," The Associated Press reported Gore as saying. He also urged worshippers to take advantage of a state law that permits voting before Election Day.
"Early voting is a good idea," he said. "You want to give them plenty of time to count all the votes." (Full story)
Kerry's running mate, Sen. John Edwards, swung through Ohio on a bus tour Sunday, and Vice President Dick Cheney spent the day in his home state of Wyoming. (CNN.com's Candidate Tracker)
Kerry campaigned Saturday in New Mexico and Colorado, criticizing Bush's handling of national security. Bush was in Florida for his 32nd visit since becoming president, and in speeches across the state called Kerry indecisive over the war in Iraq.
Bush accused Kerry of "misunderstanding of our battle against insurgents and terrorists in Iraq" saying his Democratic opponent changed his position on the war.
Kerry has said he still stands by his vote to give Bush the authority to invade Iraq, though he has criticized how the president handled the invasion and its aftermath.
In Pueblo, Colorado, Kerry promised supporters he would fight international terrorists more effectively than the Bush administration, contending that the president "outsourced" the duty of capturing al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden to "Afghan warlords."
Kerry was referring to the widely held belief among U.S. military and intelligence officials that bin Laden was in the Tora Bora region of Afghanistan in December 2001, when U.S. and Afghan troops were assaulting the area. U.S. forces did largely rely on Afghan forces, but there is no definitive proof that the al Qaeda leader was really there.
Although Colorado has been rock-solid Republican for a decade, including in 2000 when it sided with Bush by an 8 percent margin, recent polls show Kerry is in a close race.
Nationally, an average of 10 polls shows the race to be too close to call, with Bush edging out Kerry by just 3 percentage points, well within the margin of error of each poll.
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
