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Full Report: Page C8
John McCain said he gave his
all, while aides said his trouble
began when he declared the
teetering economy sound. A14.
Lines were long at polling
places across the nation, but
Obama’s prodigious field organ-
ization helped keep problems to
a minimum. A16.
Massachusetts voters reject-
ed a repeal of the state income
tax, decriminalized possession
of small amounts of marijuana,
and approved a ban on grey-
hound racing. B1.
Senator John F. Kerry easily
won reelection to a fifth term,
fending off a challenge by Re-
publican Jeffrey K. Beatty. B9.
Emotions ran high in Chicago
as tens of thousands poured
into Grant Park from near and
far for Obama’s acceptance
speech. A13.
Sonia Chang-Díaz captured
the seat long held by state
Senator Dianne Wilkerson, who
left the race after being arrest-
ed on bribery charges. B9.
Coverage, A12-17, B1, B6-10.
MARK WILSON/GLOBE STAFF SAUL LOEB/AFP/GETTY IMAGESJIM WATSON/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Features
Business B11
Deaths B17-19
Editorials A18
Lottery B2
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Historic victoryELECTORAL COLLEGE 338Obama 142
270 NEEDED TO WIN
Obama elected nation’s first African-American president in a romp
McCain falters on GOP terrain; Democrats increase clout in Congress
By Scott Helman
and Michael Kranish
GLOBE STAFF
CHICAGO — Senator Barack
Obama of Illinois was elected the
44th president of the United
States and the nation’s first black
commander in chief yesterday,
his triumph ushering in an era of
profound political and social re-
alignment in America.
Obama’s decisive victory over
Republican John McCain is a
landmark in the country’s 232-
year history, especially for the
millions of African-Americans
around the country energized
and inspired by his improbable
candidacy. It gives Democrats
control of Congress and the
White House for the first time in
16 years and it led to impromptu
celebrations around the country.
Making good on his promise
to draw his own electoral map,
Obama captured Virginia, which
last voted for a Democrat in
1964, and he beat McCain in key
battleground states, including
Colorado, Florida, New Hamp-
shire, Ohio, and Pennsylvania,
while holding on to Democratic-
leaning states. He won in part on
the support of new voters,
African-Americans, and Hispan-
ics, and as of early today he had
338 electoral votes, far more than
the 270 needed to win the presi-
dency, while McCain had 142.
In a grand celebration on a
balmy fall night in Chicago’s
Grant Park, 240,000 supporters
gathered to toast the president-
elect. When the networks called
the race shortly after 10 p.m. lo-
cal time, tears flowed, flashbulbs
JASON REED/REUTERS
President-elect Barack Obama, his daughters Sasha and Malia, and wife Michelle waved to supporters last night in Chicago’s Grant Park. ELECTION, Page A12
ELECTORAL COLLEGE Obama McCain Not decided
TX
34
MT
3
ID
4
MO
11
MA 12
LA
9
MS
6
SC 8
NC 15
KY 8
IN
11
OH
20
VT 3
NH 4
RI 4
CT 7
NJ 15
DE 3
MD 10
ND
3
SD
3
KS
6
WY
3
DC 3
TN 11
WA
11
AL
9
MI
17
VA
13
FL
27
CA
55
NY
31
OK
7
WV
5
OR
7
AK
3
HI
4
CO
9
AR
6
IA
7
PA
21
MN
10 WI
10
IL
21
ME
4
NE
5
NM
5
AZ
10
GA
15
UT
5
NV
5
Election 2008
By Michael Levenson
GLOBE STAFF
Sixty-six-year-old Jake
Coakley picked cotton as a boy in
Beaufort, S.C., just as his father
and grandfather did before him.
So yesterday, as he stood amid a
throng of people hugging, high-
fiving, and even weeping outside
a Roxbury polling place, he want-
ed to underscore the significance
of the day.
‘‘This,’’ he said to a little boy,
patting his head and staring
deeply into his eyes, ‘‘is history.’’
At another polling station
blocks away, Charles Robinson
recalled the racial epithets shout-
ed at him as a student at South
Boston High School during the
busing crisis of the 1970s.
In St. Petersburg, Fla., Ron
Dock spoke of the day he learned
that the Rev. Martin Luther King
Jr. had been shot. Dock was 18,
he said, crouching in a rice paddy
in Vietnam, preparing for a fire-
fight. In Alexandria, Va., 83-year-
old Flossie Parks recalled turning
21 and being forced to pay a $3
poll tax for the right to vote.
Millions of black voters across
the country turned out to help
elect Barack Obama the first Afri-
can-American president yester-
day, and as they did, they reflect-
ed not just on the course of a
historic campaign, but on the
history of a nation.
BLACK VOTE, Page A17
Among blacks, joy and
tears at journey’s end
By Susan Milligan
GLOBE STAFF
WASHINGTON — Demo-
crats increased their ranks in
Congress last night, picking up
seats from the Canadian to the
Mexican borders and ushering
in a new era of Democratic
power in Washington the party
has not seen since the 1960s.
In a heavy blow to the GOP,
Democrats collected several
high-profile Senate seats, oust-
ing veteran Republican law-
maker John Sununu in New
Hampshire and replacing him
with former governor Jeanne
Shaheen. New Mexico and Col-
orado sent two Democratic
brothers to the Senate, with
Mark Udall taking the Colorado
seat and Tom Udall winning the
race in New Mexico.
In Virginia, Mark Warner
easily defeated James Gilmore,
his GOP opponent, capping a
stunning Democratic showing
in the Old Dominion State,
which also voted for Barack
Obama — the first time since
1964 that a Democratic presi-
CONGRESS, Page A15
New era
beginning
for party
in power By Peter Canellos
GLOBE STAFF
CHICAGO — The people who
crowded Grant Park last night,
straining for a glimpse of Presi-
dent-elect Barack Obama, were
aroused by a lot of passionate is-
sues — war, jobs, race — and yet
they insisted that no single goal,
nothing that could be written out
and measured, defined their ex-
pectations for the next adminis-
tration.
‘‘It’s everything,’’ said a tearful
Teri McClain of Seattle.
‘‘It’s having a president with a
world view that most Americans
can believe in,’’ declared Chris
Godfrey of Des Moines, Iowa.
And yet Obama’s clear-cut vic-
tory, bolstered by strong major-
ities of his own party in both
houses of Congress, can be read
as a mandate for some very spe-
cific policy changes that could, by
themselves, have momentous
impact. Withdrawal from Iraq.
Renewal of the six-decade quest
for national health insurance.
The launch of a major govern-
ment-funded quest for renew-
able energy.
Beyond the policies, Obama’s
election will stand forever amid
the great milestones of America’s
racial history, the end of a tortur-
ous progression from emancipa-
tion to the civil rights movement
to the election of the first black
NEWS ANALYSIS
Shift in tone will bring
a watershed for nation
ANALYSIS, Page A13
GL A1 01:25 THIRD RED BLUE YELLOW Black