Question: Which state became the most important to secure the presidential election of the person accused of not fulfilling their military service in fall 2004?

full_context: Document 1: 2000 United States presidential election in Florida: After an intense recount process and the United States Supreme Court's decision in Bush v. Gore, Bush won Florida's electoral votes by a margin of only 537 votes out of almost six million cast and as a result became the president - elect. The process was extremely divisive, and led to calls for electoral reform in Florida.
Document 2: Stolen Honor: Carlton Sherwood, the producer of "Stolen Honor" is a Vietnam War veteran who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1980 for his work for the Gannett News Service. His appointments to several positions by Republican politicians has been cited as evidence of partisan bias and his journalism has been criticized. In 1983 he was responsible for a four-part series on a Washington DC television station which charged the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund with misspending—if not stealing—donated money. The following year, after a GAO audit and threats of a lawsuit, the station broadcast a retraction. "Inquisition", his investigation of the 1982 tax fraud prosecution of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon (leader of the Unification Church) was published in 1991. The following year the PBS documentary series "Frontline" reported that James Gavin, an aide to Moon, had reviewed the "overall tone and factual contents" of the manuscript and that Sherwood had agreed to his revisions. Sherwood denied that the Unification Church exerted editorial control over the book.
Document 3: 2004 United States presidential election: The morning after the election, the major candidates were neck and neck. It was clear that the result in Ohio, along with two other states who had still not declared (New Mexico and Iowa), would decide the winner. Bush had established a lead of around 130,000 votes but the Democrats pointed to provisional ballots that had yet to be counted, initially reported to number as high as 200,000. Bush had preliminary leads of less than 5% of the vote in only four states, but if Iowa, Nevada and New Mexico had all eventually gone to Kerry, a win for Bush in Ohio would have created a 269–269 tie in the Electoral College. The result of an electoral tie would cause the election to be decided in the House of Representatives with each state casting one vote, regardless of population. Such a scenario would almost certainly have resulted in a victory for Bush, as Republicans controlled more House delegations. Therefore, the outcome of the election hinged solely on the result in Ohio, regardless of the final totals elsewhere. In the afternoon Ohio's Secretary of State, Ken Blackwell, announced that it was statistically impossible for the Democrats to make up enough valid votes in the provisional ballots to win. At the time provisional ballots were reported as numbering 140,000 (and later estimated to be only 135,000). Faced with this announcement, John Kerry conceded defeat. Had Kerry won Ohio, he would have won the election despite losing the national popular vote by over 3 million votes, a complete reversal of the 2000 election when Bush won the presidency despite losing the popular vote to Al Gore by over 500,000 votes.
Document 4: John Kerry: With the continuing controversy that had surrounded the military service of George W. Bush since the 2000 Presidential election (when he was accused of having used his father's political influence to gain entrance to the Texas Air National Guard, thereby protecting himself from conscription into the United States Army, and possible service in the Vietnam War), John Kerry's contrasting status as a decorated Vietnam War veteran posed a problem for Bush's re-election campaign, which Republicans sought to counter by calling Kerry's war record into question. As the presidential campaign of 2004 developed, approximately 250 members of a group called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (SBVT, later renamed Swift Vets and POWs for Truth) opposed Kerry's campaign. The group held press conferences, ran ads and endorsed a book questioning Kerry's service record and his military awards. The group included several members of Kerry's unit, such as Larry Thurlow, who commanded a swift boat alongside of Kerry's, and Stephen Gardner, who served on Kerry's boat. The campaign inspired the widely used political pejorative 'swiftboating', to describe an unfair or untrue political attack. Most of Kerry's former crewmates have stated that SBVT's allegations are false.
Document 5: 2004 United States presidential election: Just eight months into his presidency, the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 suddenly transformed Bush into a wartime president. Bush's approval ratings surged to near 90%. Within a month, the forces of a coalition led by the United States entered Afghanistan, which had been sheltering Osama bin Laden, suspected mastermind of the September 11 attacks. By December, the Taliban had been removed as rulers of Kabul, although a long and ongoing reconstruction would follow, severely hampered by ongoing turmoil and violence within the country.
Document 6: 2004 United States presidential election: Kerry would later state that "the widespread irregularities make it impossible to know for certain that the [Ohio] outcome reflected the will of the voters." In the same article, Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said "I'm not confident that the election in Ohio was fairly decided... We know that there was substantial voter suppression, and the machines were not reliable. It should not be a surprise that the Republicans are willing to do things that are unethical to manipulate elections. That's what we suspect has happened."
Document 7: 2004 United States presidential election: At the official counting of the electoral votes on January 6, a motion was made contesting Ohio's electoral votes. Because the motion was supported by at least one member of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, election law mandated that each house retire to debate and vote on the motion. In the House of Representatives, the motion was supported by 31 Democrats. It was opposed by 178 Republicans, 88 Democrats and one independent. Not voting were 52 Republicans and 80 Democrats. Four people elected to the House had not yet taken office, and one seat was vacant. In the Senate, it was supported only by its maker, Senator Boxer, with 74 Senators opposed and 25 not voting. During the debate, no Senator argued that the outcome of the election should be changed by either court challenge or revote. Senator Boxer claimed that she had made the motion not to challenge the outcome, but to "shed the light of truth on these irregularities."
Document 8: 2004 United States presidential election: During August and September 2004, there was an intense focus on events that occurred in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Bush was accused of failing to fulfill his required service in the Texas Air National Guard. However, the focus quickly shifted to the conduct of CBS News after they aired a segment on 60 Minutes Wednesday introducing what became known as the Killian documents. Serious doubts about the documents' authenticity quickly emerged, leading CBS to appoint a review panel that eventually resulted in the firing of the news producer and other significant staffing changes.
Document 9: 2000 United States presidential election: Presidential candidate Party Home state Popular vote Electoral vote Running mate Count Percentage Vice-presidential candidate Home state Electoral vote George Walker Bush Republican Texas 50,462,412 47.87% 271 Richard Bruce Cheney Wyoming 271 Albert Arnold Gore, Jr. Democratic Tennessee 50,999,897 48.38% 266 Joseph Isadore Lieberman Connecticut 266 Ralph Nader Green Connecticut 2,882,955 2.74% 0 Winona LaDuke Minnesota 0 Pat Buchanan Reform Virginia 448,895 0.43% 0 Ezola B. Foster California 0 Harry Browne Libertarian Tennessee 384,431 0.36% 0 Art Olivier California 0 Howard Phillips Constitution Virginia 98,020 0.09% 0 Curtis Frazier Missouri 0 John Hagelin Natural Law Iowa 83,714 0.08% 0 Nat Goldhaber California 0 Other 51,186 0.05% -- Other -- (abstention) -- -- -- -- (abstention) -- Total 105,421,423 100% 538 538 Needed to win 270 270
Document 10: John Kerry: During his bid to be elected president in 2004, Kerry frequently criticized President George W. Bush for the Iraq War. While Kerry had initially voted in support of authorizing President Bush to use force in dealing with Saddam Hussein, he voted against an $87 billion supplemental appropriations bill to pay for the subsequent war. His statement on March 16, 2004, "I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it," helped the Bush campaign to paint him as a flip-flopper and has been cited as contributing to Kerry's defeat.
Document 11: 2000 United States presidential election: On election night, it was unclear who had won, with the electoral votes of the state of Florida still undecided. The returns showed that Bush had won Florida by such a close margin that state law required a recount. A month - long series of legal battles led to the contentious, 5 -- 4 Supreme Court decision of Bush v. Gore, which ended the recount. With the end of the recount, Bush won Florida by a margin of. 009%, or 537 votes. The Florida recount and subsequent litigation resulted in a major post-election controversy, and various individuals and organizations have speculated about who would have won the election in various scenarios. Ultimately, Bush won 271 electoral votes, one more than was necessary for the majority, and narrowly lost the popular vote to Gore.
Document 12: 2016 United States presidential election: Voters selected members of the Electoral College in each state, in most cases by ``winner - takes - all ''plurality; those state electors in turn voted for a new president and vice president on December 19, 2016. While Clinton received over 2.8 million more votes nationwide, a margin of 2.1%, Trump won 30 states with a total of 306 electors, or 57% of the 538 available. He won two perennial swing states which typically decide an election, in Florida and Ohio. Trump also won three`` blue wall'' stronghold states that had not gone Republican since the 1980s: Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. He also won Maine's 2nd congressional district, which had also not been won by a Republican presidential candidate since 1988. Leading up to the election, a Trump victory was considered unlikely by almost all media forecasts. After his victory was assured, some commentators compared the election to President Harry S. Truman's victorious campaign in 1948 as one of the greatest political upsets in modern American history.
Document 13: 2000 United States presidential election in Florida: The 2000 United States presidential election in Florida took place on November 7, 2000, as part of the nationwide presidential election. Florida, a swing state, had a major recount dispute that took center stage in the election. The outcome of the 2000 United States presidential election was not known for more than a month after balloting because of the extended process of counting and recounting Florida's presidential ballots. State results tallied on election night gave 246 electoral votes to Republican nominee Texas Governor George W. Bush and 255 to Democratic nominee Vice President Al Gore, with New Mexico (5), Oregon (7), and Florida (25) too close to call that evening. Gore won New Mexico and Oregon over the following few days, but the result in Florida would have been decisive however those two states had voted.
Document 14: 2004 United States presidential election: The first debate was held on September 30 at the University of Miami, moderated by Jim Lehrer of PBS. During the debate, slated to focus on foreign policy, Kerry accused Bush of having failed to gain international support for the 2003 Invasion of Iraq, saying the only countries assisting the U.S. during the invasion were the United Kingdom and Australia. Bush replied to this by saying, "Well, actually, he forgot Poland." Later, a consensus formed among mainstream pollsters and pundits that Kerry won the debate decisively, strengthening what had come to be seen as a weak and troubled campaign. In the days after, coverage focused on Bush's apparent annoyance with Kerry and numerous scowls and negative facial expressions.
Document 15: John Kerry: Meanwhile, Kerry's staff began their own investigations and, on October 14, issued a report that exposed illegal activities on the part of Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, who had set up a private network involving the National Security Council and the CIA to deliver military equipment to right-wing Nicaraguan rebels (Contras). In effect, North and certain members of the President's administration were accused by Kerry's report of illegally funding and supplying armed militants without the authorization of Congress. Kerry's staff investigation, based on a year-long inquiry and interviews with fifty unnamed sources, is said to raise "serious questions about whether the United States has abided by the law in its handling of the contras over the past three years."
ground_truth: the outcome of the election hinged solely on the result in Ohio
sub_queries: Who was accused on not fulfilling their military service, during the fall of 2004? Answer: Bush
Which state became the most important to secure Bush 's presidential election? Answer: the outcome of the election hinged solely on the result in Ohio