With the US election now in voters hands, Democratic challenger John Kerry said yesterday Americans had a choice: a change in direction or four more years of the same under George W. Bush.

“You have a choice, all Americans have this choice today,” the Massachusetts senator said before heading home to Boston to vote and have a traditional Election Day lunch at the Union Oyster House. “George Bush made his choices.”

Kerry charged that the Republican incumbent was responsible for job losses, an out-of-control deficit, burgeoning health care costs and a failed policy in Iraq.

“The president made a choice. He made a choice without a plan to win the peace,” he told supporters at canvassing headquarters in La Crosse. “We need a commander in chief who knows how to bring other countries to the table.”

But Kerry acknowledged that if he won the White House, his job would not be easy. “I’m not pretending to anybody that it’s a bed of roses. We’ve got some tough choices.”

The Democrat took no chances, hunting for every last vote by helping to add new names to the rolls in the vital battleground state of Wisconsin and urging voters to go out and cast their ballots for “a new beginning... change of direction.We’re going to put common sense and truth back into the decisions of this country”.

Kerry wound up his two-year quest for the presidency with an 18-hour marathon that took him from Florida in the south to Wisconsin in the upper Midwest.

“This is your chance to hold George Bush accountable,” he told supporters . “The hopes of our country are on the line ... and the world is watching.”

Kerry appeared relaxed, confident and energetic as he rushed to the finish line, cracking jokes and swapping high fives as he sped through the soggy Midwest.