HONOLULU (AP) - A few weeks ago, Republican Gov. Linda Lingle was having a hard time selling the idea that Hawaii could play any real role in the presidential election. Now, she and leading Democrats are talking about the 50th state deciding a 50-50 race.

Vice President Dick Cheney, former Vice President Al Gore and Sen. John Kerry's daughter Alexandra are all converging on the state largely ignored until the campaign's last hours.

After two media polls early this week showed the race dead even in Hawaii with up to 12 percent undecided, the state suddenly switched from a sure bet for Kerry to a presidential battleground.

Four electoral votes are at stake where polls close at the tail-end of a long national election day and the vote count is slow. The first results from Tuesday's voting are not likely to come in until after midnight Eastern time.

If the count in the rest of the country somehow falls into place early and is as close as projected, Hawaii could put Bush over the top, Lingle said in announcing that Cheney would come for a late-night rally Sunday.

Bush national campaign manager Ken Mehlman, in a phone call informing Lingle of Cheney's visit, said he hoped the election is settled before Hawaii's votes come in, but that the GOP considers the state winnable.

``Fortunately for us, it's coming down to where Hawaii will play a critical role in this election,'' Lingle said.

Even if Bush can't win Hawaii, stepping up the campaign in the islands and sending Cheney expands the map of close races and forces Kerry to divert money from Ohio and other bigger battlegrounds. Democrats already are running more TV and radio ads in the islands, while the GOP has been relying on national ads. Hawaiians can also expect plenty of automated calls boosting the president.

Democrats feel Kerry still has the edge in heavily Democratic Hawaii. Some votes already are out of reach.

Honolulu attorney Robert K. Merce said he's already voted for Kerry by absentee ballot out of concern for the growing deficit.

Vadim Shteyman, a Web site developer, said Cheney's late-night rally ``might swing the vote by 1 or 2 percent but likely would not affect the outcome.'' He decided months ago to vote for Bush because of the war and his proposals to let younger workers divert some payroll taxes from Social Security into personal investment accounts.

No major party candidate on a national ticket has campaigned in Hawaii since Richard Nixon in 1960 - a race he lost to John F. Kennedy, with local pundits saying coming to the islands was one of Nixon's mistakes.

But Nixon went on to win Hawaii in his 1972 second-term victory. He, along with President Reagan in 1984, also winning a second term, are the only Republicans ever to take the state. Gore beat Bush in 2000 by 18 percentage points.

Bush and party are desperate to the point of addressing a group largely ignored by them - The Democrats!

AND then, ONLY addressing them through the cameras on TV at their conventions because those conventions are by and large attended only through invitations and Bush and party haven't invited Dems.

So, this whole trying to get Hawaii thing is just another case of "whatever" for me.

Cheney's down-right freaky, anyway. He's my additional hope for Bush losing this election.