11pm: East coast polling closes and states are officially projected for Barack Obama. California was called first. Washington followed seconds later, bringing Obama votes to over the required 270 and sending him into the White House.
ABC, CNN, NBC and the BBC have call the election for the Democratic candidate.
Victory marks the end of a momentous campaign. Mobilising thousands upon thousands of volunteers a much more democratic model of campaigning built support from the ground up, encountering wild enthusiasm among the young -- they have realised it is their time.
People who had never felt engaged by the political process before have become involved. The celebrations will be enormous, although they may be brief. The problems facing a nation in debt and at war are immense. So the honeymoon may be short, there will be one heck of a party tonight.
The crowds are cheering, the flags are waving in Chicago. Rev. Jesse Jackson is in tears. The people spoke tonight and they spoke loudly and clearly. And so did the world.
In Kenya, in a sleepy village in the early morning, there is dancing in the streets. In Chicago they will dance through the night; Kenyans are dancing into the morning; we are singing in our hearts.
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