Passionate race drives a massive turnout

— -- The tug of history, concern about the economy and a pair of compelling candidates propelled voters to the polls Tuesday, putting new turnout records in reach and electing Democrat Barack Obama to the presidency.

Voting experts said turnout could match or exceed the high-water mark set in 1960, when Democrat John Kennedy faced Republican Richard Nixon and nearly 64% of eligible citizens voted. They also predicted record turnout among blacks and among voters under 30.

Black voters accounted for 13% of the electorate, up 2 percentage points from 2004, in surveys of voters as they left the polls. Young voters increased their share from 17% to 18%. The two groups overwhelmingly supported Obama. For black voters, it was nearly unanimous.

Curtis Gans, head of American University's Center for the Study of the American Electorate, said voters have not been as massively dissatisfied with their president, the economy or the direction of the country since 1932.

That mood drove turnout, he said, as did Obama's intensive get-out-the-vote efforts and "strong affirmative feelings" about him among voters.

A final tally of turnout hinged on hard vote counts from all states, which could take weeks. Based on returns Tuesday night from five states, "We should see roughly an 8% bump in turnout" over 2004, said Donald Green, director of Yale's Institution for Social and Policy Studies. That would take it to a record 65%.

More than half of Colorado and Nevada voters had already voted by Election Day, as had about 40% in Florida and North Carolina. States without widespread early voting, such as Michigan, Missouri, Pennsylvania and Virginia, reported long lines Tuesday.

Robert Ware, 63, an election monitor at the St. Louis Board of Election Commissioners, visited six polling places by 10 a.m. and found more people in line than in 2000 and 2004 combined. "The past election was a trade wind blowing," he said. "This feels like a hurricane."

Issues, history pull voters

At polling stations across the country, people said they were concerned about jobs and health care, moral values and experience. Many were first-time voters drawn by the sour economy or Obama's historic quest.