Las Vegas NowHistory is Made, Obama Wins
Obama had Vermont, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland and New Jersey, as well as the District of Columbia, for 78 electoral votes.
McCain had Kentucky, Tennessee, Oklahoma and South Carolina, for 34 electoral votes.
In Nevada, Clark County Registrar of Voters Larry Lomax estimated about 140,000 ballots were cast before 3 p.m.Democrat Barack Obama won overwhelming support from minority voters in Nevada on Tuesday, making up for Republican John McCain's strength among whites, an Associated Press exit poll showed.
Roughly three-quarters of Nevada Hispanics and more than nine in 10 blacks voted for Obama, and the groups combined represented about one quarter of the total vote, the poll said.
Barack Obama, the 47-year-old first-term senator from Illinois, will become the first African-American president of the United States.
Read the text of Obama's victory speech
In his victory speech, Obama told a crowd of thousands gathered in Chicago, that Americans have sent a message to the world. "Change has come to America," he said. "I will never forget who this victory belongs to. It belongs to you."
Sen. John McCain conceded to Obama from the Biltmore Hotel in Arizona. "Let there be no reason now for any American to fail to cherish their citizenship in this the greatest nation on earth. Senator Obama has achieved a great thing for himself and for his county and I applaud him for it." He urged all Americans who supported him to support Obama. He thanked his supporters. "Though we fell short the failure is mine, not yours," McCain said.
Obama swept to victories in traditionally Democratic states in the East and Midwest, while McCain countered in the safest of Republican territory.
Obama reached the needed 270 electoral votes by 8 p.m. Pacific Time. He won key states including Virginia, Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania. He spent millions in his campaign to become the 44th president.
McCain countered with Texas and numerous smaller states, mostly in the south and the Great Plains.
In Nevada, Clark County Registrar of Voters Larry Lomax estimated about 140,000 ballots were cast before 3 p.m. Tuesday in the Las Vegas area. That put turnout in the state's most populous county at more than 65-percent of active voters, before the evening rush.
The White House was the main prize of the night on which 35 Senate seats and all 435 House seats were at stake. In both houses, Democrats hoped to pad their existing majorities, and Republicans braced for losses.
An estimated 187 million voters were registered, and in an indication of interest in the battle for the White House, 40 million or so had already voted as Election Day dawned. Turnout was heavy. In Virginia, for example, officials estimated nearly 75-percent of eligible voters would cast ballots.
(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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