Title: Barack Obama to be America's first black president | US elections 2008 | The Guardian
Headings: Barack Obama to be America's first black president
Barack Obama to be America's first black president
Content: From the eastern shores of Virginia, across the industrial heartland of Ohio, and on to the Rocky mountain states of Colorado and New Mexico and beyond, poll workers and voters reported long lines and waits of several hours in the most eagerly anticipated US election for half a century. Turnout was at levels not seen since women were first given the vote in 1920. Election officials predicted turnout would come close to 90% in Virginia and Colorado, and 80% in Ohio and Missouri. The chance to choose America's first black president drew out more minority voters than in recent elections, turnout experts said. White voters represented 81% of the US electorate eight years ago and 74% this year, according to exit polls. The odds had been stacked against McCain from the start, linked, as he was, to Bush, with his near-record low popularity ratings, hostility towards the Iraq war and an impending recession. But McCain managed to hold his own until mid-September, when the Wall Street crash saw Obama open up a commanding lead. Obama will inherit horrendous economic problems that will limit the scope of his ambitions. In his final rallies, Obama 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 healthcare and education reform. 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.