Wednesday, 05 November 2008 01:00  |  Written by Steve Hall and posted in News

Last night America created history by electing Barack Obama as their first African-American President in a landslide victory over John McCain.  "Change has come to America," Mr Obama announced in his victory speech.

"It's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America," Mr Obama said against a curtain of American flags. "If there is anyone out there who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer."

"Even as we celebrate tonight, we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime - two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century.

"The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even in one term but America tonight I have never been more certain that we will get there."

Republicans suffered their worst election defeat for 50 years as Obama and the Democrats captured seven states that had voted Republican in 2004 - Ohio, Florida, Virginia, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada and Iowa.  

No Republican has ever become President after losing the state of Ohio, so when Obama won this state at just after 3am GMT it looked like victory was in sight for the Democrats.  At 4am it was announced that Obama had won California and several other states and had surpassed the winning threshold of 270 Electoral Votes needed to become president.  John McCain then conceded defeat.

With two states still yet to be called, Obama currently stands at 349 electoral college votes to McCain's 162.  Find out what this means in our feature article on How Voting In America Works .

George Bush remains president until Barack Obama's inauguration on January 20^th, 2009.

 

Who voted for Obama?

Exit polls showed that McCain attracted 55% of white male voters, over half of voters 65 years or older and over 70% of white evangelical Christians.  While 67% of under-30s, 56% of women, two-thirds of Hispanics and 95% of blacks who went to the polls voted for Obama.  Obama was also the choice of nearly seven in ten first-time voters of all ages.

Click here to see a slideshow of exit poll graphs.