AllAfrica editor Brian Kennedy is following the United States election from Washington, DC and updating this page with results, projections, and observations throughout the day and night, so be sure to check back frequently.
10:05 EST: The day after the election is pretty quiet in Washington, following a spontaneous celebration in front of the White House and Obama's historic speech in front of hundreds of thousands in Grant Park, Chicago last night. For reaction from Kenya, see Katy Gabel's blog here.
11:05 EST: All major news agencies have projected that Barack Obama will be the next president of the United States. He has passed the 270 mark. He will the first African-American president.
10:30 EST: Two senior McCain aides have told CNN that they see "no path to victory." Assuming the polls are correct, Obama will cross the 270 mark in projected electoral votes at 11:00 PM eastern standard time when the west coast states, including California, close their polls.
9:40 EST: CNN and other news organizations have called Ohio for Obama, a key state that in 2004 that carried Bush to re-election. NBC has called New Mexico for Obama, another state that Bush won in 2004. McCain is going to need a huge upset in one of the remaining states in order to win. All eyes will be on Florida, North Carolina, and Virginia - three big states that are all still to close to call.
8:30 EST: ABC and NBC have both called Pennsylvania for Obama. CNN has called New Hampshire for Obama. Assuming these early projections are correct, McCain's road to the White House just got considerably more challenging. McCain must win Ohio, Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, Missouri, and Indiana. He must also win the western states - Nevada, New Mexico, and Colorado. If he loses any of these states, Obama will very likely win tonight.
7:50 EST: People are starting to flow into Grant Park in Chicago for Senator Obama's speech tonight. City officials are expecting somewhere between 500,000 to 1 million people. Polls will close in 15 states and the District of Columbia in less than 10 minutes. Many key states where the polls have closed are still too close to call.
6:21 EST: The Drudge Report is leading with the headline - "Exit Polls Show Obama Big."
6:03 EST: Polls have closed in parts of Indiana and Kentucky, so the first actual results will start trickling in.
4:50 EST: Turnout is heavy today, and some experts expect turnout to be more than 130 million people. I went to my polling place at 9:30 AM this morning in suburban Maryland to try to avoid long lines, and it still took me over an hour. Previously, I have been able to vote without waiting. Senators Obama, McCain, and Biden and Governor Palin already voted earlier this morning. Senator Obama told reporters after voting, "I noticed that Michelle [his wife] took a long time though. I had to check to see who she was voting for." Throughout the country, there have also been very few reports of voting problems so far.
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4:00 EST: Here in the United States the three network television stations and three cable news stations will dominate the coverage. Each television station employs a political team to project the races throughout the country. These projections are based on a variety of factors, but mainly rely on polls of voters in the weeks leading up the election, and also on exit polls, which are taken as people leave polling stations. Exit polls are not always reliable though, so political teams will look a variety of other factors. Most television stations will be extremely cautious on projections though; they do not want any repeats of 2000.
3:45 EST: The magic number tonight is 270, the number of electoral votes a candidate needs to get to win the presidency. The popular vote is a good predictor but as 2000 proved, a candidate can win the popular vote and lose the electoral vote. The odds are long for McCain, but here is what a McCain victory could look like.
3:35 EST: The first polls close in less than three hours. Most of the polling places close in Indiana at 6 PM (the state is in two different time zones, so polls close at two different times), a key state where Senator Barack Obama held a rally today. It is a state that traditionally goes Republican, so an Obama victory here could catapult the senator from Illinois to a huge election victory.
