Pennsylvania Called for Kerry

The first of the three key swing states to be called for either candidate, Pennsylvania, was today called for John Kerry.

The Democratic challenger picked up the state and its crucial 23 electoral college votes four hours into a count that offered few clues as to which man would spend the next four years in the White House.

States that voted for George Bush in 2000 were called for the incumbent, and Mr Kerry picked up reliable Democrat states.

But the majority of the battleground states were uncalled for either candidate, and the election - as all polls since March have suggested it would be - is a cliffhanger.

With 88% of the vote counted in Florida, a Bush state in 2000, the president was 4% ahead, and Mr Kerry's hopes appeared to narrow down to Ohio, the third big swing state, which was won by Mr Bush last time.

Voting continued in Ohio hours after the scheduled closing time for the polls, and it is not yet known when a result will come through.

The chances of a dramatic win for either side narrowed as probable swings to Mr Kerry - including Colorado and West Virginia - were called for Mr Bush, and probable swings to the president, including New Jersey, stuck with the Democrats.

The president declared himself "upbeat" and convinced of his re-election as calls trickled in.

The only change on the 2000 result came in vote-splitting Maine - one of two states that allocates electoral votes proportionally - when one of its four votes went to Mr Bush.

A possibility of early drama was raised when Virginia was reported as being too close to call. Any hint that Mr Bush was not easily winning the state, which has not voted for a Democratic candidate since 1964, would have heartened Mr Kerry.

After more than an hour's agonising wait for the Bush campaign, it was called for the incumbent.

Calling is not the same as a declaration - the analysis is based on exit polls and early counting - but US media groups insist their statistical models have been overhauled to avoid the errors of four years ago when Florida was first called for Al Gore and then for Mr Bush.

Record numbers of Americans have voted, and election experts are predicting a turnout of 121 million - considerably higher than the 106 million who voted in 2000, and the highest proportion since 1960.

Mr Bush voted in Crawford, Texas, and Mr Kerry in Boston after both engaged in a spurt of unprecedented last-minute campaigning.

"I've given it my all," the president said after casting his vote. Mr Kerry, a senator for Massachusetts, was teary-eyed as he thanked his staff for their work over the campaign. "We made the case for change," he said.

Polling since Mr Kerry beat off challengers to the Democratic nomination in March suggested as tight a contest as 2000, but pro-Democrat political blogs - posting what they claimed was early exit poll data - gave the challenger a clear lead over Mr Bush.

Some called into question the results, which showed Mr Kerry with a 60-40 lead over Mr Bush in Pennsylvania on MyDD.com. Meanwhile, the Wonkette blog urged readers to take the figures with "huge tablespoons of salt".

In a final opinion poll, the respected pollster John Zogby, who came closest to the 2000 result, called the election for Mr Kerry in the electoral college. His analysis gave the Democrat 311 votes, well above the 270 a successful candidate needs, but put Mr Bush ahead in the popular vote 49.4%-49.1%.

A contested result could lead to weeks of legal action. Both sides have prepared armies of lawyers to take the election battle to the courts.

For now, however, voters welcomed an end to the longest, most expensive election on record. "It's the only way to make the ads stop," Amanda Karel, of Columbus, Ohio, told the Associated Press as she waited in line to vote.