US Election: Unofficial Exit Polls Point to Obama Victory

Barack Obama appeared to be heading for victory over John McCain tonight, with the Democratic candidate on course to take at least half a dozen battleground states that had been held by the Republicans, according to unpublished exit polls.

Obama was enjoying double-digit leads in many of these states. But voting was still going on in many states and Obama's campaign team, anxious to get as many votes out as possible, expressed caution about the exit polls.

There remained a possibility of a late surge in voting, by people returning from work, that could change the outcome in key battlegrounds, which sealed the fate of the Democratic candidate John Kerry in 2004.

The exit polls, taken in the morning and early afternoon, suggested Obama was going to win all the states that Kerry won last time, and at least half a dozen others that had been a toss-up between Obama and McCain.

As expected, Obama was projected to take Vermont, and McCain Kentucky, as polls closed in several states, according to American TV networks.

Exit polls nationwide provided an early boost for Obama, showing that the top concern of 62% of voters was the economy, the issue on which voters said they trusted him more than McCain and blame much of the financial crisis on President George Bush's administration.

Other early exit poll figures also appeared to be good indicators for Obama, with 57% saying they felt Obama was more in touch with them than the 40% who said the same about McCain.

The fate of Obama and McCain was sealed in at least two states tonight when Virginia and Indiana became the first of 50 states to close. The two are battleground states which voted Republican in 2004 and their loss by McCain could spell the end of his White House hopes.

Indiana and Virginia closed at 6.00pm ET(GMT 11pm) and the other states will stream in hour after hour all the way to Alaska at 1.00 am ET( GMT 6.00).Early expectations were of record turnout levels, with the morning bringing long lines at polling stations. However, exit polls later in the day saw voters under 30, the target demographic of the Obama camp, voting at about the same levels as in 2004.

That would be a disappointment for the Obama camp which had been hoping that young voters would buck the tradition of showing enthusiasm for a candidate and then failing to turn out on the day. Exit polls did chart a rise in African-American turn-out.

The stock market experienced its biggest election day rally in 24 years on expectation of an Obama victory.

Independent election monitors reported sporadic instances of delayed openings of polling stations, broken voting machines, ballot shortages, voter confusion and occasional abuse in a number of battleground states including Florida, Ohio, Colorado, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

The McCain camp raised separate its own charges of irregularities accusing Black Panther activists holding night sticks of standing outside Philadelphia polling stations in an attempt to intimidate white voters.

McCain also accused out-of-state Obama volunteers of casting votes in Florida, and of voters casting multiple ballots in Florida.

Reflecting the intensity of the campaign, Obama and McCain put in a final burst of campaigning after casting their own votes.

Obama made a final dash from his home in Chicago to neighboring Indiana, which was Republican in 2004. Reporters traveling with him reported that the candidate was in a subdued rather than celebratory mood, perhaps reflecting the news of the death of his grandmother on Monday.

Obama told them that whatever happened, the campaign, the costliest in US history at over $1 billion as well as the longest, had been "extraordinary". At Obama headquarters in Chicago, a campaign worker described the mood as "optimistically nauseous", reflecting both the party's hopes but the lingering fear after Democratic defeats to Bush in 2000 and 2004.

McCain, who at 72 would be the oldest ever US president, made late dashes to New Mexico and Colorado, both of which were also Republican in 2004, before returning to his native Arizona to vote.

The Republican said he remained in contention -- and was hoping for a surprise win. But there was an elegiac quality to his insistence. "Look, I know I'm still the underdog, I understand that," he said. "You can't imagine, you can't imagine the excitement of an individual to be this close to the most important position in the world, and I'll enjoy it, enjoy it. I'll never forget it as long as I live."

The excitement generated by the campaign translated into high voter turn out , with election officials reporting extraordinary levels of interest - to the extent that authorities in Colorado warned they might not be able to finish the count until Wednesday.

The next president will inherit horrendous economic problems that will limit the scope of his ambitions. Obama, in his final rallies, was already tempering his early promise of change with warnings about how he would have to curb some of his more ambitious plans, trying to lower expectations that he would be able to move quickly on health care and education reform.