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They came, they waited in long lines and finally — after one of the most extraordinary presidential elections in history — they voted.

Some were filled with hope, others with fear, still more with a sense of America at a crossroads, where the next president will face economic convulsions at home and crises abroad.

Turnout in the election was expected to smash records. The queues forming outside polling stations at dawn were testament to the energy, excitement and expectations generated by a campaign that lasted almost two years. At Velda City in Missouri there were reports of voters waiting six and a half hours.

Early leaks of exit poll data gave encouragement for Barack Obama, suggesting that he was performing strongly across a swath of battleground states down the East Coast and in the Mountain West. These have, however, often been dramatically wrong before and there were other surveys pointing to a much closer contest in key states.

According to information released by TV networks, nearly two-thirds of voters said the economy was the paramount issue for them, while seven in ten first-time voters backed Mr Obama.

The Democrat cast his ballot early in Chicago before heading to Indiana to help volunteers turn out voters in this target state. He was later due at an election night party in Chicago with 70,000 supporters — vast crowds have greeted him at every stop in recent days.

The campaign has long since been pregnant with historic possibilities. Mr Obama, bidding to become America’s first black president, saw off a ferocious effort by Hillary Clinton to break the glass ceiling that has kept women from winning the White House, while John McCain breached Republican precedent by picking a female running mate in Sarah Palin.

But the election has also been the most expensive ever fought, re-written rules for how activists are mobilised, revolutionised how the internet is used and shaken loose political affiliations across whole regions.

On Wall Street, stocks rose faster than on any election day for 24 years in anticipation of the Treasury bailing out more stricken financial companies and an end to the uncertainty of the presidential campaign.

Mr McCain, who made last-ditch campaign stops in Colorado and New Mexico, was planning to address supporters outside a hotel in Phoenix, Arizona. He said that his underdog candidacy had got a late surge of momentum, but also struck a valedictory note when discussing his campaign in a morning interview. “I’ve loved every minute of it,” he said. “It’s been an unforgettable experience.”

Bill Clinton, the former President, predicted that the election would signal the end to the “extreme agenda” adopted by the Republicans 30 years ago. Mr Obama’s campaign manager, David Plouffe, said new voters were tipping the balance.

The scale of voting appears to have been immense. But there were problems at polling stations in swing states, increasing nerves as Democrats and Republicans accused one another of dirty tricks, fraud or voter suppression. Thousands of lawyers were deployed at precincts in key states.

Mr McCain’s campaign filed a lawsuit against Virginia, seeking to extend by 10 days the deadline for absentee ballots sent by troops abroad.

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