Title: Barack Obama elected 44th president
Headings: Barack Obama elected 44th president
Barack Obama elected 44th president
Recommended
Congress Democrats' sweeping election overhaul bill hits roadblock with tie vote in Senate panel
Elections Glenn Youngkin becomes Virginia Republicans' nominee in governor's race

Content: ‘Transformation of America’
In the end, Florida, the scene of electoral chaos in recent votes, had little impact. The state had been watched closely, but results there and in some other closely contested states were delayed until after Obama clinched his victory, as record numbers of voters flocked to polling stations, energized by an election in which they would select either the nation’s first black president or its first female vice president. Recommended
Congress
Congress Democrats' sweeping election overhaul bill hits roadblock with tie vote in Senate panel
Elections
Elections Glenn Youngkin becomes Virginia Republicans' nominee in governor's race
The percentage of Americans who voted was unmatched in at least a generation and perhaps since 1908, according to election experts. Secretaries of state estimated turnouts approaching 90 percent in Virginia and Colorado and 80 percent or more in big states like Ohio, California, Texas, Virginia, Missouri and Maryland. Voters were lured to the polls by the historic nature of an election that held the potential to yield an African-American president and reject the party of an unpopular president. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., a legend of the civil rights movement of the 1960s, said he was “overwhelmed” and had broken down in tears. “I never imagined, I never even had any idea I would live to see an African-American president of the United States,” Lewis said in an interview on MSNBC. “We have witnessed tonight in America a revolution of values, a revolution of ideals,” Lewis said. “ There’s been a transformation of America, and it will have unbelievable influence on the world.”