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It's all over.

Concluding what was the longest and most expensive presidential campaign season in history, Democratic candidate Barack Obama was elected the 44th president of the United States, destined to make the history books as the nation's first African-American president.

The news broke at 11 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 4, immediately after polls in West Coast states closed and projected the electoral vote count put him over the 270 needed to claim a majority in the Electoral College.

"If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer," Obama announced in his victory speech at Grant Park in Chicago, Illinois. "It's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America."

Obama easily clinched victory over Republican opponent John McCain, winning 349 Electoral College votes over McCain's 147. Early on election night he took a commanding lead by winning the key battleground states of Pennsylvania and Ohio, both considered crucial must-win states for his opponent.

He also won states such as Indiana and Virginia, historically Republican states that haven't been won by a Democrat since Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1964 election, as well as Florida, key to George W. Bush's wins in 2000 and 2004.

McCain voiced his congratulations for Obama in his concession speech outside the Arizona Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix, Arizona, urging his supporters to move forward and put aside their party differences in accepting Obama as president.

"I urge all Americans who supported me to join me in not just congratulating him, but offering our next president our good will and earnest effort to find ways to come together to find the necessary compromises to bridge our differences and help restore our prosperity, defend our security in a dangerous world, and leave our children and grandchildren a stronger, better country than we inherited," McCain said.

Gracious in defeat, he then added, "We fought as hard as we could. And though we fell short, the failure is mine, not yours."

This year's election drew the largest voter turnout in a decade; based on 88 percent of precincts, 136.6 million Americans cast their votes in the election, accounting for a 64.1 percent turnout rate. The last time there was a larger voter turnout rate was in the 1908 election between William Howard Taft and William Jennings Bryan with a turnout of 65.7 percent, while the last time there was a rate over 60 percent was during the 1960 election between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon, with 63.8 percent of Americans voting.

The election of the first black president is being highly regarded as a groundbreaking move forward from America's history of racism and discrimination towards African-Americans. Both President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice acknowledged that in congratulating Obama.

Bush described the president-elect as "a triumph of the American story, a testament to hard work, optimism and faith in the enduring promise of our nation." Rice, an African-American, said she was "especially proud, because this is a country that's been through a long journey, in terms of overcoming wounds and making race not the factor in our lives."

The conclusion of Obama's victory speech was an anecdote about a 106-year-old named Ann Nixon Cooper who cast her vote in Atlanta, providing a reminder of the struggles she had to overcome as a black woman in the 20th century.

"She was there for the buses in Montgomery, the hoses in Birmingham, a bridge in Selma, and a preacher from Atlanta who told a people that 'We Shall Overcome' … and this year, in this election, she touched her finger to a screen and cast her vote, because after 106 years in America, through the best of times and the darkest of hours, she knows how America can change," he said.

McCain reminisced in his concession speech about when Theodore Roosevelt invited the African-American activist and educator Booker T. Washington to dine at the White House in 1901, noting the event "was taken as an outrage in many quarters."

"America today is a world away from the cruel and frightful bigotry of that time," he declared. "There is no better evidence of this than the election of an African-American to the presidency of the United States."

The president-elect can expect great challenges in his future. He will inherit a serious economic crisis, a trillion-dollar federal deficit, the Iraq War and hostility from foreign powers such as Russia, North Korea, and Iran. Even still, Obama offers a sense to optimism to the American public that change will come.

"The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even one term, but America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there."

In notable local races, Democrat Suzanne Kosmas defeated incumbent Tom Feeney to win Florida's 24th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. Republicans Evelyn Lynn of the 7th District of the Florida Senate and Dorothy Hukill of the 28th District of the Florida House of Representatives were both re-elected.
At of the time of this writing, the race between Daytona State College graduates Nancy Epps and Joshua Wagner in the race to fill the seat vacated by Art Giles in District 2 of the Volusia County Council is too close to call, though current results show Wagner with a slight edge.

Florida voted yes on three of the six proposed amendments to Florida's Constitution, including Amendment 2, defining marriage as between one man and one woman. The others to pass were Amendment 4 (requiring a tax exemption on land used for conservation purposes) and Amendment 6 (proposing an assessment of working waterfront property).

Amendment 1, which proposed to delete provisions giving the Legislature authority to regulate or prohibit rights of real property by aliens ineligible for citizenship, was defeated in a close race. There was, however, a clear majority voting no on Amendment 8, which proposed a local option sales tax intended to supplement funding for community colleges.
Amendment 3, which would prohibit the assessment of changes and improvements to residential real property in its value, is currently too close to call.

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